





THE 

BRITISH 

ISLES 



i WHYBROW 



THE BRITISH ISLES 

A School Certificate Geography 



BY 

S. J. B. WHYBROW, B.Sc, F.R.G.S. 

Senior Geography Master at the Central Foundation 
Boys' School, London 



ILLUSTRATED WITH 

66 MAPS AND 1 6 PAGES OF 

PHOTOGRAPHS 



J. M. DENT AND SONS LTD. 
BEDFORD ST. LONDON W.C. 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN AT 

THE TEMPLE PRESS, LETCHWORTH, HERTS 

FIRST PUBLISHED I944 



W55& 



o tC 



* BOOK 
PRODUCTION 
WAR ECONOMY 

STANDARD 



THIS BOOK IS PRODUCED IN COM- 
PLETE CONFORMITY WITH THE 
AUTHORIZED ECONOMY STANDARDS 



PREFACE 



I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and I find it 
hard to believe. — R. L. Stevenson. 

This book, which is meant for the fourth and fifth forms, is 
designed to cover the requirements of the School Certificate 
examinations of the British universities. It has two dis- 
tinguishing features, a liberal use of: 

(i) Sketch-maps, which are to be gradually built up by 
the pupils themselves. 

(ii) Questions, planned to make the pupil think, inter- 
spersed throughout the text. 

As, at a casual glance, the book might appear to be an 
exercise book, it should be made clear that it is a text-book, 
and contains all necessary information. The author firmly 
believes in the value of sketch-maps as the shorthand of 
geography, but feels that it is better, where possible, that 
students should be encouraged to make their own maps 
rather than that everything should be done for them. Thus 
in this book simplified sketch-maps of each region showing 
coast-line, upland, main rivers, and towns are given; 
these are easy to copy, and help in drawing the maps 
has been added where this seemed of value. Students 
are expected to complete these maps from the informa- 
tion given in the book, and thus make for themselves 
a summary of each region. For the convenience of the 
h teacher in checking the accuracy of the work of students on 
k their sketch-maps, place names have been shown with 
' initial letters, except where two or more towns or rivers 
begin with the same letter. In the first area to be discussed, 
the Central Lowlands of Scotland, the sketch-map has been 
completed as an example. It is pointed out, however, in 
the chapter, that this map would be a great deal better if 



vi PREFACE 

done under ordinary school conditions, with a bigger page 
and the opportunity to use both ink and pencil, and perhaps 
a coloured pencil as well. 

The second idea is the use of questions in the body of the 
chapter. There is no need to tell students everything and 
never allow them to think; why must we continually write 
such sentences as 'Norwich, in the centre of a farming 
district, has industries connected with farming, e.g. agri- 
cultural implements, starch, mustard, beer'? It is surely 
better to give the industries and ask the student to draw the 
connection. Questions of geographical fact are not asked, 
unless the information has been given earlier in the book. 
The author feels that with the guidance which has been given 
the students will find no difficulty in answering the questions ; 
he can only say that all have been used with success in his 
own teaching of Great Britain and Ireland. The questions 
may, obviously, either be answered orally in the course of 
a lesson or written as 'prep. 5 

Photographs have been included where it is felt that 
illustration would enrich the general idea of a region. 

The examining bodies of the universities of Oxford, 
Cambridge, London, Bristol, and those of the Northern 
Universities Joint Board and .the Central Welsh Board, have 
kindly given permission for the use of School Certificate 
questions set by them. These have been added at the 
end of the appropriate chapter. The following abbre- 
viations have been used : Northern Universities Joint Board, 
N.U.J.B. ; and the Central Welsh Board, C.W.B. 

I desire to thank Miss S. W. Pearson, B.Sc, Mr. H. L. 
Constable, B.A., and Mr. H. W. Marsh, of J. M. Dent & 
Sons Ltd., for reading the book in manuscript, and for 
their many valuable criticisms and suggestions. In the 
past teachers and students have written to the author 
about his books : he can only repeat that criticisms will be 
welcomed. 

S. J. B. W. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I. Position, Physical Features, the Continental Shelf. 



page 



Tides, Fishing 










i 


II. Climate and Weather . 










16 


III. Minerals . 










28 


IV. Farming . 










36 


V. Scotland 










52 


VI. Wales 










68 


VII. Ireland . 










79 


VIII. Northern England 










88 


IX. The Midlands 










112 


X. The Scarplands 










118 


XL East Anglia: the Fens . 










122 


XII. South-eastern England 










!3i 


XIII. The Hampshire Basin 










140 


XIV. South-western England 










. 144 


XV. Somerset: Bristol . 










• I5 1 


XVI. The London Basin . 










• 156 


XVII. Communications 










. 167 


XVIII. Population: the Counties 










• 173 


XIX. Trade .... 










• 179 


XX. Conclusion 










. 186 


Index .... 








. 


. 191 



Vll 



LIST OF DIAGRAMS 



DIAGRAM 

I. The Continental Shelf 



2. 



A Simplified Map showing the Main Areas affected 

DURING THE CALEDONIAN, ArMORICAN, AND ALPINE PERIODS 

of Mountain Building ...... 

3. The Highland and Lowland Zones of Great Britain . 

4. The Chalk and Limestone Areas of South-eastern 

England ......... 

5. The British Isles in the Middle of the Eighth Century . 

6. Sketch-map for Question 8 (Fishing Grounds) 

7. The Important Fishing Ports . . . 

8. Mean January Temperatures ..... 

9. The Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift . 

10. Mean July Temperatures ...... 

1 1 . January and July Isotherms (reduced to Sea Level) 

12. Maps of a Cyclone ....... 

13. Conditions in a Cyclone and the Bjerknes Interpretation 

14. An Anticyclone ........ 

15. The Mean Annual Rainfall . . . . . 

16. Coal and Iron Ore in Great Britain .... 

17. Section across the Yorkshire Coal-field from West to 

East, showing Exposed and Concealed Portions of the 
Field . . . . 

18. The Moorland and Rough Grazing of Great Britain 

19. The Distribution of Sheep . 

20. The Distribution of Wheat . 

21. The Distribution of Oats . 

22. The Distribution of Beef Cattle 

23. The Distribution of Dairy Cattle 

24. The Distribution of Potatoes 

25. The Division of Scotland into Three Regions 

26. Sketch-map: the Central Lowlands of Scotland 

27. Sketch-map: the Central Lowlands of Scotland (com 

pleted) ........ 

28. Sketch-map: the Highlands of Scotland 

29. Sketch-map: the Southern Uplands of Scotland 



page 
2 



3 

5 

7 
8 

13 
14 

17 
18 

21 
22 

23 

24 

25 
29 



30 
37 
38 
40 

4i 
46 
48 

49 
52 
53 

59 
61 
64 



LIST OF DIAGRAMS ix 

diagram page 

30. Sketch-map: Wales. How to Begin .... 68 

31. Sketch-map: Wales ....... 69 

32. Sketch-map: the South Wales Coal-field . . . 71 

33. Part of the South Wales Coal-field . . . . 72 

34. Sketch-map : Ireland . . . . . .80 

35. Northern England ... . . . .89 

36. Sketch-map: Cumbria ....... 90 

37. The Radial Drainage of the Lake District . . 91 

38. Sketch-map: the West Pennine Plain .... 94 

39. Sketch-map: North-eastern England . . . .100 

40. Sketch-map: the Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Notting- 

hamshire Coal-field ...... 



41. Yorkshire: the Main Regions .... 

42. Sketch-map : the Midlands . 

43. The Main Canals and Navigable Rivers of England 

44. The Scarplands ....... 

45. Section across the Scarplands showing the Alternation 

of Ridges and Clay Vales .... 



103 
107 

113 
116 

119 

120 
123 



46. Sketch-map: the Fens, East Anglia 

47. Map showing (i) the Site of Great Yarmouth; (ii) an 

Earlier Bay now covered by the Broads and Drained 
Marshland . . . . . •. . .127 

48. Geological Map of South-eastern England. . . 131 

49. Section from North to South across South-eastern 

England . . . . . . .132 

50. Sketch-map: South-eastern England . . . .132 

51. (1) Guildford as a Gap Town; (2) Portion of the North 

Downs between Guildford and Dorking to show the 
Steep Southern Scarp Face . . . . .137 

52. Sketch-map: the Hampshire Basin. .... 140 

53. The Sites of Southampton and Portsmouth . . .142 

54. Sketch-map: South-western England . . . .144 

55. A Drowned Valley (Ria) ...... 147 

56. Sketch-map: Somerset ....... 151 

57. The Site of Bristol . . . . . . 153 

58. Sketch-map: the London Basin . . . . .156 

59. Geological Section from the Chiltern Hills to the 

North Downs 156 



x LIST OF DIAGRAMS 

DIAGRAM m PAGE 

60. Railway Routes from London through the Chiltern 

Hills . . . . . . . . .158 

61. The Site of London in Roman Times . . . .160 

62. The London Docks (excluding Tilbury) . . .162 

63. The Position of Industrial Centres on Thames Side . 163 

64. The Main Railways . . . . ... 171 

65. The Density of Population in England and Wales prior 

to the Industrial Revolution . . . . 174 

66. The Density of Population to-day . .. . . 175 



LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS 

facing page 
The Scottish Herring Fishery Fleet at Yarmouth . . 12 

Blast Furnaces, South Wales ...... 33 

A Combine Harvester ....... 36 

The Highlands of Scotland, Loch Affric .... 54 

Shipbuilding on the Clyde ...... 54 

Reservoir in the Elan Valley, Wales . . . .70 

A Colliery Village, South Wales ..... 72 

An Irish Bog ......... 83 

An Irish Homestead, Killarney ..... 83 

The Pennines, Upper Ribblesdale ..... 88 

The Lake District, Wastwater ...... 92 

An Industrial Town . . . . ... . .92 

The Fens . . . . . . . . . .124 

Brick Works . . . . . . . . . 126 

The Seven Sisters, Sussex . . . . . . .130 

Orchards in Kent . . . . . . . 1 34 

Southampton Docks . . . . . . . .142 

Dartmoor .......... 146 

Boscastle, Cornwall . . . . „ . . .146 

London Docks . . . . . . . . . 162 



CHAPTER I 

POSITION, PHYSICAL FEATURES, THE CONTINENTAL SHELF, 
TIDES, FISHING 

The British Isles, two large and over five hundred smaller 
islands off north-west Europe, lie in a io° net, that is, most 
of the land is between 50 N. and 6o° N. latitude, and 
between o° and io° W. longitude. The total area is but 
120,000 square miles, only 3 per cent of the total expanse 
of Europe. This insignificance in size is often not realized : 
Ireland or Scotland has about the same area as Lake 
Superior in North America, and Eire is the same size as 
Tasmania or Ceylon. It will be shown later, on page 8, 
that historical factors have altered the significance of the 
position of the British Isles. 

This book is a description of present-day conditions, but, 
to understand these, it is necessary not only to consider 
events in recent times, but also some which happened 
millions of years ago, the geological history of the British Isles. 

The English Channel and the North Sea are shallow ; if, 
for example, St. Paul's Cathedral were placed on the sea 
floor it would not be completely submerged, and there are 
some large areas, called banks, where the sea is as little as 
100 ft. deep. The best known of these is the Dogger Bank 
(dogge is Dutch for cod). Diagram 1 shows this shallow 
water, and a section shows that the real edge of the Continent 
of Europe lies some 50-100 miles to the west of Ireland. 
The British Isles are said to lie on a continental shelf; they 
have been separated from the Continent by subsidence* of 
the intervening land. It is thus to be expected that the 
main surface features of Great Britain and Ireland will 
correspond with those on the Continent. Diagram 1 shows 
what the drainage of the British Isles may have been before 

1 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



this subsidence took place : a much extended Rhine gathering 
up left-bank tributaries from eastern Great Britain, an 
enlarged Seine draining southern England, and a river 
flowing south between Ireland and Wales. 



' . • „ . i . . . i jLgig ^ rir ■■ : ■ . . ■ . \. „. ... 




VER.TICAU SCAUE, 
EXAGGERATE.!) 33TtHES 



Diagram i. The Continental Shelf 

In other parts of the world severe earthquakes sometimes 
cause heavy loss of life and considerable damage. These 
earth movements to-day are mild and insignificant com- 
pared with activities in the past, before man appeared on 
the earth, when gigantic quakes buckled and folded the 
surface rocks, and slowly formed great mountain systems. 
The world to-day is enjoying a period of comparative quiet. 
There was a number of such periods of mountain building, 
and three of these have affected large areas in Great Britain 



PHYSICAL FEATURES 3 

and Ireland. The oldest of them is called the Caledonian 
because it was during this time that the Scottish Highlands 
and the Southern Uplands of Scotland were formed. 
Diagram 2, however, shows that the mountains of this 



j^/T NOR.WAY 



CAL&fcONlAN 
ARMOMCAM 
ALPINE. 

HM LAVAS 

— TR.E.ND LINCS 

++ GEOLOGICAL 
SIMIUAMTIE.3 

& ./OO ML3. 




BMTTANIf 



Diagram 2. A Simplified Map showing the Main Areas affected during 
the Caledonian, Armorican, and Alpine Periods of Mountain Building 

period are found not only in Scotland but in the Lake 
District, Wales, and north-western Ireland, and that the 
ranges lie usually in a N.E.-S.W. direction. It is thus 
sometimes said that the 'grain' of the Scottish Highlands is 
N.E.-S.W. Later came the Armorican period, so called 
from an , old Celtic name for Brittany in north-western 
France, and it will be seen that the direction of the ranges 
in this case is usually from west to east, as in southern 



4 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Ireland, South Wales, Dartmoor, Exmoor, and the Mendips. 
In the Pennines, however, which were probably formed at 
this time, the direction of the fold is from north to south. 
It will be noticed that, in Great Britain, these areas of 
mountain building are in the north and west. Some part 
of these upland areas always seems to have been dry land 
despite many changes in the level of the land compared 
with the sea. The south and east, however, have been 
many times submerged, and this part was covered with 
sediments, sands, clays, chalk, and limestone. Tennyson, 
whose poetry often embodied the scientific ideas which 
were being born during the nineteenth century, expressed it : 

There where the long street roars, hath been 
The stillness of the central sea. 

But these rocks of the south-east are similar to those in 
France and Belgium : perhaps the most striking example of 
this may be seen by an observer on the chalk cliffs of Dover 
who, on a clear day, can see the chalk cliffs of Calais across 
the narrow stretch of water which has saved Britain from 
invasion for nearly a thousand years. These rocks were 
affected during another period of mountain building, called 
the Alpine, because it was during this time that the Alps 
and many other of the great folded mountains of the world 
were formed. The north and west, farther from the centre 
of mountain building, were almost untouched except that 
lavas welled up through cracks then formed. The plateau 
of Antrim in north-eastern Ireland is of lava, the Giant's 
Causeway is made of six-sided columns of basalt, and there 
is a similar formation in Staffa, an island in the Hebrides. 
Skye and Mull also contain volcanic material. 

But not only have the British Isles suffered changes of 
this kind; there have been, in addition, many changes of 
climate. In Carboniferous times, about 250,000,000 years 
ago, so called by geologists because in some of the layers 
then deposited coal is found, the climate was hot and wet. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES 



HIS 



Much of the land was swampy, and it was the vegetation 
of the swamps which was later crushed by sea sediments to 
form coal. Later in geological history the climate was 
hot and dry, and Britain was a desert. The land, as so 
often in deserts, was red in 
colour, and the reddish soils 
of parts of the Midlands are a 
legacy of this age. Much more 
recently, probably about one 
million years ago, the climate 
became bitterly cold, and ice, 
forming first - on the higher 
land of the north and west, 
gradually spread down the 
mountain sides and covered 
the lower land. All Ireland 
and Great Britain as far south 
as a line joining the Thames 
and the Bristol Channel were 
affected, the east of Great 
Britain mainly by an ice sheet 
centred in the highlands of 
Scandinavia. There were in- 
tervals, probably three, when 
the climate became warmer 
and the ice melted, but it was 
not until some ten to fifteen 
thousand years ago that this 
glacial period ended. The 
effects of the ice age will be discussed later in the chapter. 
Diagram 3 shows the broad division that may be made 
of Great Britain. North and west of the 'Exe-Tees' line 
are the old hard rocks, the highland zone, while south and 
east of this line are the newer softer rocksi There are 
lowlands in the highland zone, but the broad distinction 
remains true. The south-east is not a flat, monotonous 




L.OWUMS& towE, 
HIGHLAND 3)0. 



Diagram 3. The Highland 
and Lowland Zones of Great 
Brit aim 



6 THE BRITISH ISLES 

lowland, for the harder chalk and limestone have not been 
worn away as easily as the softer clays, and thus the chalk 
and limestone form lines of low hills or of plateau country. 
The existence of this highland zone not only affects the way 
of life of people to-day, but has had a profound effect on 
the history of Britain. 

As the ice sheet gradually retreated from Great Britain 
the country was occupied by people of Middle and Late 
Old Stone Age culture from the Continent; they came 
probably before the separation of this island from the 
mainland. 

Later two main streams of settlers with superior cultures 
came from the Continent. The earlier, coming along the 
coasts of Spain and western France, reached Ireland, western 
England, and western Scotland. It is called megalithic 
(Greek megas =grea.t, lithos= stone) from the great stone 
circles and avenues they built, of which Avebury and Stone- 
henge are the best known. Their chiefs were buried in 
stone huts over which earth was heaped to form huge 
mounds or 'barrows.' The other, known as Beaker Folk, 
from the shape of the earthenware pots they used, came, 
much later, from central Europe, across the North Sea. 
It may be wondered why they did not come the shortest 
way, but it is probable that the tides of the newly formed 
Straits of Dover were too violent for these early navigators. 
These two peoples spread over England. 

The earliest inhabitants of Britain were food-gatherers, 
but these later arrivals brought improved tools and a 
knowledge of agriculture. Thus developed the later Old 
Stone Age and Bronze Age cultures in which the communi- 
ties ceased to be self-sufficient, agriculture and the crafts 
developed, and long-distance overseas trade began. When 
bronze implements were first used in England is uncertain, 
but it was somewhere between 2000 and 1500 B.C. Settle- 
ment in England was principally on the chalk and lime- 
stone hills of the south and east. Early man objected to 



PHYSICAL FEATURES 



the dense forest and water-holding soil of the lowlands and ? 
moreover, these were the home of the wolf, boar, bear, and 
wild ox. The soil of the open and more lightly wooded 
hills could be worked by primitive implements, and here, 
too, early man avoided the 
ague and rheumatism of 



S'STONEHENGE. 



UMtSTONE. 

CHAUK 



the damp lowlands. 

Qiiestioni. Stonehenge 
and Avebury, shown on 
diagram 4, were im- 
portant^tribal gathering 
places. What can be 
noticed about their 
position? 

Some time about 1000- 
800 B.C. the Belgae, an iron- 
using people, introduced 
their heavy, ox-drawn, iron- 
coultered plough, and some 
clearing of the lowlands 
began. It is known that 
Caesar was attracted by 
the wheat-lands of southern 
England. The Romans extended this lowland cultiva- 
tion, but it was the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons of the sixth 
and seventh centuries a.d., men used to working heavy 
land, who, with their heavy plough drawn by eight oxen, 
made the first considerable inroad into the forest and marsh. 
The Romans, who were an upper class of administrators 
and traders, had lived side by side with the earlier inhabi- 
tants, who became ' Romanized ' especially to the south and 
east of a line from the Wash to Plymouth. The Saxons, 
on the other hand, who came to conquer and decided to 
stay, either drove the Celts before them or isolated them in 
enclaves. In fact, one may compare the action of the 



t So MU$. 




Diagram 4. The Chalk and Lime- 
stone Areas of South-eastern 
England 



8 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



Saxons to the Celts with that of the English to the Red 
Indians in North America. 

Qiiestion 2. (i) The Romans occupied the whole of 
what is now England; they did not conquer Wales, 

although they had some 
military posts to protect 
miners, and in Scotland 
only in the south was 
their control felt, and 
that only for a short time. 
Ireland remained outside 
the Roman Empire. 
What can be said about 
the extent of the Roman 
conquest of Britain? 

(ii) Diagram 5 shows 
the extent of the occupa- 
tion of Britain by Angles, 
Saxons, and Jutes in the 
middle of the eighth 
century. What can be 
said about this conquest? 

It was mentioned in 
the first paragraph that 
although since historical 
times the British Isles have 




Diagram 5. The British Isles in the 

Middle of the Eighth Century 

(according to Bede) 



been two large and a number of smaller islands, historical 
factors have altered the significance of this statement. Two 
thousand years ago, when the Mediterranean Sea justified its 
name, and was in the middle of the important lands, the 
British Isles were on the fringe of the then known world. To 
the Romans, Britain was an outpost of empire, and the moun- 
tainous areas of Wales and Scotland were their north-west 
frontier inhabited by turbulent tribes, as the north-west 
frontier of India is to-day. The great change in the world 



CONTINENTAL SHELF 9 

position of the British Isles came with the discovery of 
America ; Britain was no longer on the edge of the known 
lands, but in the middle, on the routes between the 'old' 
and 'new' worlds. The Mediterranean Sea became, as a 
result of this discovery, together with that of the Portuguese 
route to India via the Cape of Good Hope, a backwater 
until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. 

The effects of glaciation are important. On the higher 
land of Scotland and elsewhere, the slowly moving ice 
removed the surface layers and, to-day, large areas are 
almost without soil and thus are useless for farming. It 
must be realized that the formation of soil, which means the 
gradual alteration of the surface layers of any rock, under 
the action of the weather, is a slow process and, if the rocks 
are hard, a very slow one. In lower areas, e.g. in most of 
the plain of east England, as far south as the Thames and 
in the west Pennine plain, the soil removed from the higher 
land was deposited. Were it not for these glacial drifts the 
author would not now be sitting in a house in Norfolk writing 
this book, for the district would be under the sea. In East 
Anglia much of the land covered by these drifts is called 
boulder clay, from the stones found in it. This clay, which 
has been mixed with the chalk of the neighbourhood, pro- 
duces a fertile soil. Again, a geological map, which in- 
dicates the 'solid' geology or main rock structure, shows 
the plain of Ireland as carboniferous limestone, but, in fact, 
much of the plain is covered to a great depth by glacial 
deposits. A striking feature in glaciated areas is the U- 
shaped valley caused by the smoothing of the sides by ice 
and the truncating of spurs, and this may be contrasted with 
the V-shaped valley of areas unaffected by ice action. 

The continental shelf is important for its effects on tides 
and on fishing. The main cause of the tides is the attraction 
of the moon on the oceans, and the tidal waves so caused 
move because the earth is rotating. The sun also affects 
the tides, and thus at full moon and new moon, when the 



io THE BRITISH ISLES 

attraction of the sun aids that of the moon, high tides are 
higher and low tides are lower. These fortnightly high 
tides are called spring tides, and at half-moon, when the 
sun and moon are working in opposition, is the period 
of neap tides. The tides of north-west Europe may be 
thought of as a wave coming in from the Atlantic. In the 
open ocean high tide is but two or three feet, but when the 
wave reaches the coast the effect of the continental shelf 
is to increase high tide to twenty feet, or even more, above 
low tide. High tides occur at intervals of about 12 hours 
25 minutes. 

Question 3. Height of spring tide in feet : Scilly Isles, 
16; Lundy Island, 27; Cardiff, 37; Avonmouth, 40; 
Sharpness (12 miles south-west of Gloucester on the 
east of the Bristol Channel), 42. Draw a simple sketch- 
map inserting these facts. What can be noticed? 
Bearing in niind the shape of the Bristol Channel what 
conclusion can be drawn? 

The extra depth of water at high tide means that ships 
can come farther up the estuaries than they otherwise 
could. In the many tiny ports round the coast small ships, 
usually coastal vessels, come in at high tide, moor up at the 
wharves, and may be resting on the bottom at low tide. 
In the bigger ports the docks are often enclosed basins ; 
for example, on the Thames, where the difference between 
high tide and low tide is some twenty feet, big ships come 
up river at high tide, enter the docks, and the dock gates 
are then shut. 

Question 4. The movement of water in and out of an 
estuary is valuable in another way. Explain. Re- 
member (a) that all rivers carry mud, and (b) what 
happens when dirty water in a wash-basin is not swilled 
about when the stopper is pulled out. 



TIDES ii 

Question 3 shows the great increase of high tide in a 
narrowing estuary, and this sometimes results in a low wall 
of water moving up a river at high tide. In the Severn 
this is called the bore and, in the Trent, the eagre; the 
level of the water may be raised five or six feet in a few 
minutes. 

The continental shelf is also important because fish are 
only found in large numbers where the water is compara- 
tively shallow. Round the British Isles most of the fishing 
is done in waters which are less than 100 fathoms deep 
(see diagram 1), although some fishing does take place in 
water up to 250 fathoms deep. Although fish are canni- 
balistic in that they feed on fish smaller than themselves, 
ultimately the number of fish in a sea depends on the supply 
of minute plants and sea animals which are drifted by 
ocean currents, and hence are called plankton, from a Greek 
word meaning wandering. Fish may be divided into two 
main classes, those which normally live near the surface, 
such as herring and mackerel, which move in shoals, and 
those living near the sea-floor like sole, plaice, cod, or hake. 
But even surface fish, herring and others, spawn on the sea- 
bed, so that obviously the depth of the sea is important to 
both classes of fish. The movement of water caused by 
both tides and the ' westerlies ' renews the supply of plank- 
ton, and may be compared with the changing of the water 
in a bowl of goldfish. 

Question 5. The two other great fishing grounds of 
the world are the seas off (i) Newfoundland, (ii) Japan. 
What similarities can be noticed between these and the 
seas off north-west Europe in (a) depth, (b) latitude, 
(c) general position? 

Most fish are caught in one of three ways — by trawl, by 
drift-net, or by line. Some two- thirds of the million tons 
of fish brought annually to British ports are caught by 
trawler. A trawl is a bag-shaped net, which is dragged 



12 THE BRITISH ISLES 

along at or near to the sea-bed by a slow-moving trawler. 
This method is thus used for fish which live near the sea-floor. 

Question 6. The floor of the North Sea is relatively- 
free from rocks, for it is covered with sands and mud. 
What advantage is this to a trawler? 

Nearly all trawlers to-day are driven by steam, and they 
fish not only in home waters, for some of the bigger ones may 
go as far north as Iceland or as far south as the coasts of 
Portugal and north-west Africa. On these occasions it is 
necessary to take many tons of fuel and ice, and the trawlers 
return home with perhaps fifty tons of fish. 

Fish living near the surface are caught by drift-net. The 
net is about ioo ft. long by 40 ft. deep. The top of the net 
is about 10 ft. below the surface, and is kept there by lines 
attached to the net with corks at the top. The net is kept 
vertical by small weights at the bottom of the net. Nets are 
used in large numbers, perhaps eighty or ninety, attached 
to one another, and the ship is allowed to drift with wind 
and tide, hence the name drifter. The gills of the fish, e.g. 
herring, mackerel, become entangled in the mesh of the net. 

Qiiestion 7. (i) The size of the mesh of drift-nets varies, 
e.g. it is 1 in. for herring. Why is this? 

(ii) What would be found in a trawl when hoisted? 
What would be found in a drift-net? 

[Remember that surface fish travel in shoals.] 

Fishing by line is unimportant compared with the trawl 
or the drift-net. It is used to catch the larger fish, cod, 
haddock, halibut, although these are also caught by trawl. 
The lines may be miles long and may contain thousands of 
baited hooks. 

It remains to mention some minor aspects of the fishing 
industry. Oysters are bred in the shallow mud-flats on 
either side of the Thames estuary, off Whitstable (Kent) 
and at the mouth of the Colne (Essex) . Crabs and lobsters 



FISHING 



13 



are caught in 'pots,' large baskets with a hole at the top. 
It is easy for a crab or lobster to get into the pot to eat the 
bait, but very difficult to get out again. The pots are sunk 
to the bottom of the sea with a buoy to mark their position. 




Diagram 6. Sketch-map for Question 8 
(Fishing grounds) 

Lobsters are caught off the rocky shores of south-west 
England, and also in the Orkneys and Hebrides. Crabs are 
caught mainly off north-east England. 

Question 8. Copy diagram 6 on a larger scale and 
show the following. [As the idea of the map is to show 
the main fishing grounds the outlines of Great Britain, 
Ireland, and Iceland may be copied in the simplified 
form suggested.] Herring off Orkneys and Shetlands in 
June, off the east Scottish coast and the north-east 



i4 



THE BRITISH ISLES 

English coast in August and September, and off Yar- 
mouth, Lowestoft, and the Thames estuary in October 
and November ; cod Iceland and the North Sea ; haddock 
north of North Sea ; halibut Iceland ; hake south Ireland ; 
skate and sole western England. There is no need to 
state the time of the year with the fish living near the 
sea-floor as they are caught throughout the year. 





» 




#n 




.o IoomlS. 


537 




¥ABER.DEE.N 












>7S 

[FLttTWOOD/ 


•NJSR.IMSBY 


j5 




^YARMOUTH 
LOWESTOFT* 


W^IUFOKD HAVEN / 






**-' 



Diagram 7. The Important Fishing Ports 

It was thought at one time that shoals of herring moved 
southwards in the North Sea from June onward. This has 
been proved incorrect, for the fish which appear off Yar- 
mouth and Lowestoft in October and November are not of the 
same type as those seen off the Shetlands earlier in the year. 

Fresh fish is perishable, and only those ports with good 
railway connections to the densely peopled areas are im- 
portant; diagram 7 shows the main ones. The ports are 



FISHING 15 

usually as near the fishing grounds as possible, and are not 
far up estuaries as are so many cargo ports. Of these fishing 
ports Hull and Grimsby are pre-eminent for cod, Yarmouth 
and Lowestoft for herring, whereas Fleetwood and Milford 
are important for hake. The fish landed is not, however, 
only for home consumption, for salted herring are exported 
to the countries round the Baltic Sea, and salted cod to 
countries in south Europe. Because the chief fishing 
grounds for herring vary throughout the season the drifters 
use ports in the north in June and July and then, later on, 
ports farther south. Scots fisher girls, who gut the fish 
before it is packed with salt in barrels ready for export, 
follow the drifters southwards, working at ports in the north 
in early summer and at Yarmouth and Lowestoft in October 
and November. There are also other 'camp-followers' of 
the industry, salesmen, coopers, and curers. 

Question 9. There is a considerable demand for fish 
in the countries of southern Europe. What are the 
reasons? [Bear in mind (a) the depth of the Medi- 
terranean Sea, (b) the religion of the majority of the 
people of southern Europe.] 



CHAPTER II 

CLIMATE AND WEATHER 

The quip of foreigners that the Englishman's only topic of 
conversation is the weather is an indication of its day-to-day 
variability. Although the month of January may have 
days with arctic conditions and a snow-covered landscape, 
followed by days like those of spring ; or July may have a 
heat-wave that merits the word tropical, it is still true that the 
main feature of the British climate is its equability. Britain 
is not a country of disastrous floods, long periods of drought, 
or seasons of great heat or cold. Climate has been termed 
average weather, and thus these daily changes, often so 
disconcerting to the foreigner, are hidden when dealing 
with mean figures. 

The main points to be discussed are temperature in 
winter and summer, and rainfall, both the season and the 
amount. The mean temperature figure of a day is taken 
as the average of the maximum and minimum of that day, 
while the mean of a month is the average of the daily 
means. When it is said that the mean January temperature 
of London is 39 F., this figure has been obtained by taking 
the average over a long period, usually at least thirty years, 
of all the January means of London. Mean figures are 
useful in that they show the main similarity or difference 
between two places, but they have the disadvantage that 
they mask not only the daily changes but also the range 
between day and night. Even in an area as small as that 
of the British Isles the range in the east is greater than in 
the west. Great Britain and Ireland have the usual equable 
temperatures, that is, the small range between winter and 
summer, associated with island climates. Water warms up 
more slowly than land, but also cools more slowly, and so 

16 



CLIMATE AND WEATHER i 7 

islands do not have the extremes of temperature which 
occur in the interior of great land masses in temperate 
latitudes. 

Question i. Mean January temperatures in ° F. [See 
also diagram 8 of January temperatures.] 




Diagram 8. Mean January Temperatures 

(a) Valentia (south-west Ireland), 44; Cardigan 
(Wales), 42; Worcester, 39; Bedford, 38. 

(b) Bedford, 38; Sheffield, 38; Stirling, 38. 

(c) Exeter, 4.2 ; Cardigan, 42, Holyhead, 42 ; south 
of Lewis (an island in the Hebrides), 42. 

What conclusion can be drawn? [Note that the 



1 8 THE BRITISH ISLES 

towns in (a) are on a wcst-to-east line, whereas those 
of (b) and (c) are on a north-to-south line.] 

The British Isles are not only islands ; they are islands on 
the west side of a continent, which makes their position 
more fortunate still. The prevalent wind in these latitudes 
is from the south-west, and this blows warm water, the 




Diagram 9. The Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift 

North Atlantic Drift, which keeps the wind warm (diagram 
9). In winter when the sun is low in the sky, its strength 
weak, and its time above the horizon short, it is this warmed 
south-west wind which is the main factor in deciding tem- 
peratures. 'Apt alliteration's artful aid' makes this easy 
to remember : the west is the warmer in winter. The 
answers to Question 1 will have shown that latitude is not 
a deciding factor; London is as cold as Edinburgh, but 
north-west Scotland is warmer than London. The warmest 
parts in winter are the extreme south-west of Ireland and 
the south-west of England. These mean differences between 
west and east are only a few degrees, but they are per- 
ceptible and of importance in farming. In the lowlands of 



CLIMATE AND WEATHER 



19 



Cornwall, for example, frosts are not common, snow is rare, 
and palm-trees will flourish out of doors. The author met 
a girl of eighteen in Falmouth (Cornwall) who had never 
seen snow ! 

The west is warmer than the east, but Britain as a whole 



'OO MUS 




7Z. 



UNDER 6o*F. 
OVE.R. to'F. 



Diagram 10. Mean July Temperatures 

is warmer in winter than anywhere else in the world in the 
same latitudes, and some regions in the north are as much 
as 30 ° F. higher than the average for the latitude. Its 
island position explains why Britain is warmer than central 
Russia, and its situation on the west of a continent why it is 
warmer than eastern Siberia or the St. Lawrence region. 
It would seem, however, that north-western North America 
ought to be as warm as north-western Europe, but it is not, 



20 THE BRITISH ISLES 

e.g. Sitka (Alaska), latitude 57 N., January mean tempera- 
ture 30 F. ; Fort William (Scotland), latitude 57 N., 
January mean temperature 39 F. (Both these places are 
at sea level.) The probable cause is illustrated in diagram 9, 
namely that Cape St. Roque in Brazil diverts to the Gulf 
Stream, and hence to the North Atlantic Drift, some of the 
warm water of the south Atlantic. 

Question 2. Mean July temperature in ° F. [See also 
diagram 10 of July temperatures.] 

(a) Southampton, 62; Derby, 61; Durham, 60; 
Edinburgh, 59 ; Aberdeen, 58 ; Wick, 56. 

(b) In Ireland : Waterford, 60 ; Londonderry, 58. 

What can be noticed about the positions of the towns 
in groups (a) and (&) ? What conclusion can be drawn? 

In summer when the sun is higher in the sky and thus 
stronger, and its time above the horizon long, it is the sun 
which is the deciding factor, and temperatures decrease 
from south to north. 

In diagrams 8 and 10 actual temperatures are shown, but 
in diagram 1 1 sea-level isotherms have been drawn. To 
make such a map the temperature of every town above sea 
level is increased to what it would be if the town were at 
sea level. Differences of temperature due solely to varia- 
tions in height are thus eliminated, and a more general 
picture of temperature conditions indicated. 

Question 3. Explain the curve of the 6o° F. July 
isotherm over Ireland and Great Britain (diagram 11). 

Question 4. 
Mean January temps., ° F. 39 44 38 42 
Mean July temps., ° F. 54 59 62 59 

The figures of Valentia, Cambridge, Holyhead, and 
Orkney are given in a different order above. Which 
is which? [Winter temperatures will decide whether a 



CLIMATE AND WEATHER 21 

place is in the west or east, summer temperatures 
whether it is in the north or south.] 

Question 5. 
Mean January temps., ° F. 39 12 44 26 31 
Mean July temps., ° F. 63 72 59 66 65 



4o"F. 




4-4 



4o F. 



JULY ISOTH6.HMS 

JANUAR.Y DO. 



Diagram i i . January and July Isotherms 
(reduced to sea level) 

The temperatures of Valentia, London, Berlin, 
Warsaw, and Saratov (south Russia), all approximately 
in the same latitude, are given in a different order 
above. Which is which? What can be noticed about 
the difference in the winter temperatures compared with 
the difference in the summer temperatures? 

It has been mentioned above that the British Isles lie in 
the track of the ' westerlies ' throughout the year, and it is 
true that winds come from a westerly quarter on about one- 
half the days of the year. This is a great simplification of 



22 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



the truth, and it is necessary to examine two pressure 
formations, cyclones and anticyclones, which influence 
British climate. 



too* o 




9/ "™" 


i ^f^^^J M ' 


— /^w / A o 




}f v X >3\ v 


_,»00 MLS. 


dK 


PR.ES5UB.E.3 A.R.E. IN MIUIBM^S L /ooo Mb.« 


2. q-53 INS- J 



Diagram 12. Maps of a Cyclone 

Question 6. Diagram 1 2 shows the low-pressure system 
to which the name cyclone is given. 

(i) Which way are the winds in the cyclone moving? 
(ii) Which way has the cyclone, as a whole, moved? 

Cyclones usually move in an easterly direction, that is, 
they may be thought of as part of the general west-wind 
stream, and may be likened to whirls or eddies in a river. 
It is cyclones that bring rain, and diagram 13B, showing 
the structure of a cyclone, based on the work of two Nor- 
wegians named Bjerknes, is an attempt to explain why it 
rains. In this theory a cyclone is considered as being 
formed by two main currents of air, the warm air of the 
south-west winds and cold polar air moving away from the 
Arctic and forming a north-east wind. Rain occurs where 



CLIMATE AND WEATHER 



23 



the warm, light air is forced to rise on meeting colder, 
heavier air. Diagram 13A shows the areas where rain fell 
on 1 2 th March, when the cyclone indicated on diagram 12 



CYCLONE. MAR \X 

o 




jloo MLS 



f *ftcr 



STRUCTURE OF CYCLONE. 



COLO AlR PUSHING UKIDtO. 
LIGHTS WARM AIRlRAIn] 



S 

N \ 

N \ 

I 

I 



WARM AIR R»dlN« 

ove.R MtAviLR cold air[RAin; 



— RAIN 



WARM AIR. -' 



Diagram 13. Conditions in a Cyclone and the Bjerknes Interpretation 

(right) was affecting the British Isles. The isotherm makes 
it clear that the south-western stream of air was the warmer. 

Question y. If the cyclone shown on diagram 12 
(right) and diagram 1 3 moved approximately a hundred 
miles in a north-easterly direction by 13th March, state 
the probable areas where rain fell on that date. 

An anticyclone is, as diagram 14 shows, a region of high 
pressure with air moving slowly outwards in a clockwise 
direction and, normally, the isobars are much farther apart 
than in a cyclone. The winds of an anticyclone are thus 
much weaker than in a cyclone; it is the latter that bring 
gales and storms. Cyclones are usually moving towards 
the east, whereas anticyclones may stay in the same area 

B 



24 THE BRITISH ISLES 

for days and sometimes weeks together. The # air in an 
anticyclone is usually descending, and thus this pressure 
formation is not generally associated with rain. (Why?) 




Diagram 14. An Anticyclone 

N.B. The isobars of 1032 Mb., 1028 Mb., and 1024 Mb. make 

continuous lines 

In summer anticyclones bring spells of dry sunny weather 
— heat-waves — but in winter they may give rise either to 
dry, bright, sunny, frosty weather, or to fog and mist. The 
latter occur if the land is water-logged after heavy rain ; the 
air near the ground is damp and cools considerably during 
the night, so that it cannot hold all its water vapour. The 
minute droplets become visible as mist or fog and the calms 
and light breezes associated with anticyclones do little to 
dissipate the mist. It may be added that the reputation of 
Britain, held abroad, that this is a foggy northern land, is 
undeserved, for in most places fog only occurs on some 



CLIMATE AND WEATHER 25 

twentv days a year, Shakespeare illustrates this opinion 
in Henry Fby making the Constable of France say: 

Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle? 
Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull? 

Question 8. Tabulate the differences between cyclones 
and anticyclones. 

Question o. Eastern England often gets cold east winds 
in the winter and early spring. Why is this? [Think 
of the temperatures of central Europe and what pressure 
formation is likely to exist.] 




UNPER.30 
30-6o" 
OVE.P. bo" 



Diagram 15. The Mean Annual Rainfall 



Britain is in the track of the westerlies, with cyclones 
throughout the year, and thus, like the rest of north-west 



26 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



Europe, it has rain at all times of the year. No season is 
dry in any part of the British Isles but, in the west, winter is 
usually the wetter half of the year, whereas in the east more 
rain comes in the summer, often from thunderstorms. It is 
clear that the west will be wetter than the east, for when 
a cyclone passes over the mountainous districts of the west 
the rising air of the cyclone is carried upwards still higher 
(diagram 15). The differences in rainfall are, in some 
cases, considerable; for example, Snowdon has over two 
hundred inches per annum, whereas many parts of eastern 
England have less than twenty-five inches per annum. No 
area, however, suffers from the curse of aridity. 

Question 10. (i) Why is the plain of Ireland drier 
than Wales? 

(ii) About one-half of the area of England but only 
one-fifteenth that of Scotland has less than thirty 
inches of rain per annum. Explain. 

Question 11. 





J. 


F. 


M. 


A. 


My. 


J. 


Jy. 


A. 


S. 


O. 


N. 


». 


Tbtal 
Rain 


Temp. (T.) 
Rain (in.) 


38 
1-8 


40 
1-6 


42 
1-6 


47 
1-6 


53 
1-9 


59 
2-2 


62 

2-4 


61 

2-3 


57 
1-7 


49 
2-9 


44 
2-3 


40 
2-3 


24-8 


Temp. (°F.) 
Rain (in.) 


39 
1-7 


40 
1-6 


41 
1-9 


45 
1-4 


50 
2 


56 
1-9 


59 
2-7 


58 
31 


55 
2-0 


49 
2-6 


43 
21 


40 
2-2 


25-0 


Temp. (°F.) 
Rain (in.) 


44 
55 


44 
5-2 


45 
4-5 


48 
3-7 


52 
3-2 


57 
3-2 


59 
3-8 


59 

4-8 


57 
41 


52 
5-6 


48 
5-5 


46 
6-6 


55-6 



The climatic figures of Edinburgh, Valentia, and 
Oxford are given in a different order above. Which 
is which? Give reasons for the answer. 

This chapter has given a simple account of the main 
features of British climate, but it should be made clear that 
many other aspects could be discussed. One example will 
suffice. It is common to compare the winters of south 
Cornwall and the French Riviera because the mean January 
temperatures are about the same. It is true that the south 



CLIMATE AND WEATHER 27 

and south-east of Great Britain have more sunshine than 
the north but, none the less, Cornwall has far more cloud 
and far less sun than the Riviera. Again, the daily range 
in the south of France is greater, so that the daytime tem- 
perature, which is the main interest of a traveller, is higher 
than in Cornwall. Even the type of rain is different, for 
Riviera rain usually comes in short, sharp showers, whereas 
the rain of Cornwall often comes on 'soft/ grey, overcast 
days, with long periods of drizzle. 

Examination question. Describe the course of the 
isotherm of 40 F. in January and that of 6o c F. in 
July over the British Isles. Point out the principal 
differences between the courses taken by these iso- 
therms and account for the differences. (Oxford.) 



CHAPTER III 

MINERALS 

The British Isles are rich in coal, and produce some 230 
million tons of coal per year, a total exceeded only by the 
U.S.A., with over 400 million tons per year. Coal repre- 
sents about 90 per cent of the annual value of the minerals 
of Great Britain and Ireland. 

It has been mentioned in Chapter I that coal has been 
formed from swamp vegetation of a bygone age. The 
lowering of the surface buried trees and ferns beneath sand 
and mud, and other forests grew which in their turn were 
crushed. This is the reason why, in the coal measures, coal 
only occurs in layers, varying in thickness from a few inches 
to many feet, and separated by other rocks. It is impractic- 
able to work layers which are less than about 18 in. thick. 
In a Burnley (Lancashire) coal-mine, for example, there are 
30 ft. of workable coal in twelve seams in a total of 2,000 ft. 
of coal measures. Beneath the coal measures fire-clay is 
often found, so called because from it bricks able to with- 
stand fire can be made. The coal measures must have 
covered much greater areas than they do to-day; probably 
the whole of south Scotland and the northern half of Eng- 
land formed one great belt, while another stretched from 
south Wales to south-east England. It has already been 
said that the folding of the Pennines probably occurred 
during the Armorican period of mountain building, which 
was subsequent to the formation of coal. Denudation on 
the higher Pennines removed the coal layers, and thus coal- 
fields are now found only on the flanks. Similar earth 
movements elsewhere are responsible for the present position 
and extent of the coal-fields. It is possible to divide the 
coal-fields into three main groups: (a) the Scottish fields, 
(b) those lying near the Pennines, (c) those in the south 
(diagram 16). 

28 



MINERALS 



29 



FIFE. AND 

MIDLOTHIAN 



t 60 ML-S. 



NOR.THUM&E.M.AN© 

UR.HA.M 




OVtlk boo' HIGH X IRON OR.6. 

E.XP03E.D COAUFIE.LBS 

CONCE.ALE.D DO. 



Diagram 16. Coal and Iron Ore in Great Britain 

It is known that coal has been worked for a long time; it 

was certainly used in Roman Britain, and there are records 

of 'sea-cole' being brought from Newcastle to London m 

the twelfth century. These early mines must have been 



30 THE BRITISH ISLES 

quarries, and when the surface or outcrop coal was ex- 
hausted the seams were followed into the ground as roughly 
horizontal tunnels or adits. In an adit not only was 
drainage easy, but the necessity of ' cages ' (lifts) for men and 
coal was avoided. Diagram 17 shows a feature to be found 



CONCEALED 

COAl.FIC.ua 




OUMG&ft THAW 
COAL 



Diagram 17. Section across the Yorkshire Coal-field from 

West to East, showing Exposed and Concealed Portions of 

the Field 

in most coal-fields, that a part of the coal measures has 
been covered with newer rocks. This part is termed the 
hidden field, and it is only within the last forty years or so 
that these hidden fields have come into prominence. The 
East Kent coal-field is entirely hidden and, although its 
existence was surmised by geologists, it was not until 1890, 
when borings were being made for a possible Channel 
tunnel, that coal was definitely discovered. 

Question 1. There is one obvious disadvantage to 
mining in the hidden parts of the coal-fields. What 
is it? 

British coal-fields are at a disadvantage compared with 
those in some foreign countries. Coal was mined, on a 
large scale, earlier in Britain than in other areas, and many 
of the thickest seams are now worked out. For a number 
of reasons coal-cutting machinery is not used as extensively 
in Britain as elsewhere ; for example, in a number of col- 
lieries the roof is * tender,' so that it is necessary to keep 
timber supports close to the coal face, and this makes the 
use of a machine impossible. There is one great disad- 
vantage compared with the U.S.A., the depth of mining. 
In the U.S.A. this is about 400 ft., but many British mines, 



MINERALS 31 

particularly in the hidden parts of the field, go down to 
over 2,000 ft. Thus the output per man is usually higher 
in foreign coal-fields than in Britain. 

Qiiestion 2. Show the following in simple diagram 
form: 

(i) Use of coal in Great Britain in percentages: 
industry, 56; domestic, 15; railways, 6; export, 23. 
[Industry is made up of gas and electricity under- 
takings, 14; iron works, 8; collieries, 5; factories, 29.] 

(ii) Production of the main fields in percentages : 
York, Derby, and Nottingham, 30; Northumberland- 
Durham, 20; South Wales, 18; Scotland, 12; Lan- 
cashire, Cheshire, and north Staffordshire, 9; south 
Derbyshire and Midlands, 6; other fields, 5. 

Each of the main coal-fields will be discussed later in the 
chapters on the different regions of the British Isles, but it is 
well to get a broad idea of the position of the big fields and 
a word on their general significance may be added here. 
Great Britain is a highly industrialized, densely peopled 
island, and all its manufacturing areas, except one, that of 
London, are on or near coal-fields. A short history of one 
industry will make the reason clear. Until about two 
hundred years ago industry was carried on in people's 
homes, and was widespread. Products of a bulky nature, 
for example, pottery, were made nearly everywhere, and 
woollen manufacture was found in any district where the 
two essentials, wool and soft water for washing it, were 
found together. The cottagers worked for traders, who 
went with their pack-horses from village to village giving 
out the raw material and collecting the finished articles. 
It is known, for example, that even as late as 1770 nearly 
every Devon cottage had its hand-loom for weaving woollen 
cloth. Late in the eighteenth century power-driven spin- 
ning and weaving machines were invented, and a change 
came over the industry, the concentration of manufacture 

*B 



32 THE BRITISH ISLES 

in a few factories instead of in numerous cottages. These 
factories were situated where there were wool and soft 
water, and also fast-running streams providing the water- 
power to drive the new machines. It is interesting to note 
that a textile factory is still called a mill. Then came the 
invention of the steam engine, which required coal, and 
thus woollen industries survived where coal was easily 
accessible. Many areas, once important, lost their trade, 
although there are a few towns, away from the coal-fields, 
which, because of the excellence and specialized nature of 
their products, have managed to retain their trade. Examples 
are Witney in Oxfordshire, famous for blankets; Wilton 
in Wiltshire, for carpets ; and Stroud in Gloucestershire, for 
highly finished cloth used for liveries; hunting outfits, and 
billiard tables. This change in methods of manufacture is 
called the Industrial Revolution, an unfortunate term, 
because it suggests a much more sudden change than actually 
occurred. Neither is it true to suggest, as is sometimes 
done, that the new inventions transformed Britain over- 
night into an industrial country, for, although England did 
pass through a period when wool was the important export, 
exemplified by the fact that the Lord Chancellor sits on the 
Woolsack, by the fifteenth century cloth, not wool, was the 
main export. 

Question 3. (i) What is the origin of the term spinster 
for an unmarried woman? 

(ii) What is meant by the 'distaff' side? (Consult a 
dictionary if these terms are not known.) 

If then the position of the coal-fields is known, the position 
of the densely peopled industrial areas is known as well, 
provided always that it is realized that London is the one 
great exception. Of the forty-two towns in England and 
Wales of over 100,000 people, thirty-two are on the coal- 
fields. 

The production of iron ore, though important, is less than 



MINERALS 33 

2 per cent of the annual value of all minerals and is, to-day, 
the only valuable metal. In fact, about one-third of the iron 
ore used in Great Britain is imported, principally from north 
Spain, Sweden, and Algeria. Two thousand years ago 
Cornwall and the Scilly Isles, then called the Cassiterides, 
from a Greek word meaning tin, were famous for tin, and 
it is known that lead was exported from Britain by the 
Romans. The temple of Jerusalem was roofed with British 
lead. Tin is still mined in Cornwall if the world price is 
high, but the value of non-ferrous metals is insignificant. 
Nine-tenths of the iron ore mined in Britain to-day comes 
from the line of limestone hills which stretches across Eng- 
land from Yorkshire to Dorset. This has not always been 
the case, for, until the seventies of last century, most of the 
iron ore was found in the coal measures. 

In a blast furnace are placed coke or coal, iron ore, and 
limestone. The limestone acts as a flux and, combining 
with the impurities of the iron ore, rises to the top : this is 
termed slag. One famous rock of the coal measures, 'black- 
band 5 ironstone, is a mixture of coal and iron ore; the 
smelting of it was particularly easy. Limestone is usually 
available in the coal-fields or iron-ore areas and has never 
been an influence in deciding the site of iron and steel works. 
These coal-measure ores are now, however, either exhausted 
or uneconomical to mine. It was the great wealth of coal, 
the inventions of power -driven spinning and weaving 
machines and of the steam engine, and this great advantage 
of coal and iron ore in close proximity that helped to make 
Britain, in the nineteenth century, 'the workshop of the 
world. 5 Even as late as 1870 Great Britain was producing 
one-half of the coal and one-half of the pig-iron of the whole 
world. The iron ore of the limestone hills is low in iron 
content, but is usually at or near the surface, and is thus 
quarried. The opening of these mines has not meant the 
creation of a great industrial population in Lincolnshire or 
Northamptonshire, for although the ore is smelted locally, 



34 THE BRITISH ISLES 

and the sight of blast furnaces and steel mills in the middle 
of the countryside is a strange one, yet the bulk of the pig- 
iron is sent to the older iron and steel districts for further 
treatment. Within recent years much more efficient 
methods of making iron and steel have been introduced. 
The coal is made into coke on the spot for the blast furnaces, 
and the coal-gas and blast-furnace gases are used to generate 
electricity used in other processes. There are some valuable 
by-products, tar and ammonia from the making of coke, 
and slag from the blast furnaces, used ; as road metal or 
fertilizer. 

But other rocks are mined in addition to coal and iron 
ore. The harder stones of the uplands have been and are 
quarried for use in building, for example, the granite of 
northern Scotland and south-west England or the limestone 
of the limestone hills. Aberdeen is often called the granite 
city, and the houses of the Cotswold villages, perhaps the 
loveliest of all England, are built of limestone blocks 
and roofed with limestone cut into thin slabs. St. Paul's 
Cathedral is built of limestone quarried from the Portland 
district of Dorset. In East Anglia, where hard stone is 
absent, buildings in the past were often made of flints, 
and Norfolk, in particular, abounds in flint churches. The 
chalk and limestone hills provide lime for building purposes, 
and also one of the ingredients of cement. Cement is made 
by stirring together powdered chalk or limestone, clay, and 
water, and heating the mixture. Cement works are to be 
found where the two essentials occur near together, and 
usually where water transport is available for the bulky 
product, e.g. along the lower Thames and the Medway. 
The name 'Portland' cement was coined because of a 
supposed resemblance between cement and Portland stone. 
The slates of north Wales and the Lake District are 
quarried for roofing. Some varieties of clay are used for 
brick making, others for the making of pottery, while the 
decomposition of granite in parts of the moorland of south- 



MINERALS 35 

west England has produced kaolin or china clay, used in the 
manufacture of porcelain. It adds greatly to the interest 
of a journey if notice is taken of the way in which people 
have used 4ocal material for building. To-day, with the 
ease of transport, new houses anywhere are commonly 
built of brick, and offices and public buildings of ferro- 
concrete. 

Question 4. (i) Slates are not used as much as formerly. 
[Look at the roofs of most new houses.] 

(ii) Although flint is a good building material, for, 
in East Anglia and on the North Downs, flint houses, 
barns, and walls are often hundreds of years old, it is 
seldom used to-day. Why have these changes come 
about? [Think of the work involved.] 



CHAPTER IV 

* 

FARMING 

Even in Great Britain, where large coal-fields have become 
the basis of great manufactures, farming is still a major 
industry, and in Eire, where manufacture is relatively un- 
important, one-half of the working population is employed 
on farms. There are more farmers in the British Isles than 
there are in Canada ! 

An enormous amount of work has been put into the land 
of the British Isles in historical time. It is known that 
the Romans found a people who grew wheat and barley, 
and who reared cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats. Most of 
this farming was on the chalk and limestone uplands, but, 
since then, wet lands have been drained, forests cut down, 
heavy clay soils lightened, and light soils made richer by 
the addition of clay and marl. Some idea of the work 
involved may be gathered from the fact that it takes two 
hundred cartloads of soil to make a layer an inch thick 
over one acre. 

Britain to-day is the most highly mechanized farming 
country in the world. It is becoming less common to see 
a horse-drawn plough, harrow, or roller: to-day these are 
usually drawn by tractor, which has meant a great gain in 
efficiency, even if a loss in picturesqueness. The loss of 
manure, too, is regretted, particularly by the older genera- 
tion of farmers, but the passing of the horse has made farm- 
ing a more attractive occupation to the farm labourer, for 
tractors have not to be fed when not in use. One of the 
latest additions to the farmers' tools is the combine-har- 
vester, a machine worked by two men. Drawn by a 
tractor, it not only reaps the grain, but threshes it ; the corn 
pours into sacks, and a man, standing on the machine, 

36 



FARMING 



37 



replaces the full sacks by empty ones when necessary. At 
intervals the tractor stops, and the sacks are put on the 
ground, and later collected. The straw is left loose on the 
field, and is gathered by a pick-up baler, which compresses 
it into bales, and binds these 
with wire. Some farmers 
consider that the combine- 
harvester leaves more grain 
on the ground than the 
reaper-binder, and that it 
tends to scatter the seeds 
of any weeds. (The photo- 
graph shows a slightly dif- 
ferent type of machine from 
the one described ; it is less 
common.) 

The cultivation of the soil 
in Britain takes place on the 
lowlands, for these islands 
are too far north for the 
highlands to be warm 
enough in summer to ripen 
crops. Temperature de- 
creases roughly 3 F. per 
1,000-ft. rise, and thus, in 
hotter countries, farming 
may be carried on to many 

thousands of feet above sea level. Moreover, in Britain, 
even the lower hills of 1 ,000 ft. or so, although warm enough 
to ripen crops, often have poor soil, heavy rain, and steep 
slopes, so that agriculture is impracticable. The upland 
areas are thus given over mainly to sheep-rearing. . Sheep 
can thrive on the grass, the young shoots of the heather, 
and other wild plants of the hills, and, provided the rain 
runs away quickly, so that they are dry underfoot, they come 
to little harm in the cold. Damp ground is liable to give 





1 


« 


$8S\ 




J, J 


jj-tr^~~~'^ 


H9 M^oa_LAMTv .O jiOOWUS. 





Diagram 18. The Moorland and 
Rough Grazing of Great Britain 



38 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



sheep diseases of the feet, and wet grass may harbour a 
parasite which, if eaten by sheep, brings on a disease of the 
liver. The quantity of rainfall is not an important factor 
provided the ground is well drained. On the best mountain 
grazing a sheep may require one acre, but, on the poorest, 



Q ,5o m us rv r ";■ ; - : ^/ 








; «|k 




il^f ^P% 


7* jt ^^B_ 


m^ £m§:ii 


(Q??. 




• 


K^y SHEEP 

BH DO. MAIM AEE.AS 



Diagram 19. The Distribution of Sheep 

up to ten acres may have to be allowed for each sheep. On 
the higher land, for example, in the Lake District and Wales, 
the sheep are brought down from the higher sheep-walks to 
the lowland farms in the winter. 

Question 1. (i) Over one-half of Scotland is classified as 
rough grazing land, but only one-ninth of England. 
Why should this be so? [See diagram 18.] 

(ii) Examine the map of sheep distribution (diagram 
19), and make a list of the important areas. 



FARMING 39 

It should be mentioned here that, although the principal 
areas for sheep are on the uplands, where little else could 
be done, they are kept by lowland farmers as well. This 
point will be dealt with later. Sheep have long been im- 
portant in the British Isles, and they still are, for their 
number, about thirty million, is only slightly exceeded by 
New Zealand, a country which is nearly as big and where 
mutton and wool are among the chief products. 

In many areas in the world the farmer's main concern is 
to provide himself and his family with food. In parts of 
France, for example, he will grow wheat, vine, fruit, vege- 
tables, and keep cattle, pigs, and chicken. It is the money 
gained from the sale of the surplus which enables him to 
buy those necessaries which he cannot produce himself. 
This type of husbandry is called subsistence farming, and 
was to be found in England in the days before communi- 
cations were easy, and before great quantities of food were 
imported. The people of any district had to be satisfied 
mainly with what could be. grown in their immediate neigh- 
bourhood, and, even as recently as one hundred years ago, 
Great Britain and Ireland produced, in normal years, 
enough wheat to feed 90 per cent of the population. To-day 
a British farmer plans to sell his produce, and whereas, in 
parts of France, wheat may often be grown in land not 
ideally suited for it, this does not occur in England, where 
the farmer chooses the crops which will bring him the 
greatest financial returns. Only in wartime is this state- 
ment untrue, when the Minister of Agriculture may order 
land to be changed over to grain, potatoes, etc., so that the 
country may be, as nearly as possible, self-sufficient in the 
staple foodstuffs. It should be added that subsistence farm- 
ing is still practised in the Highlands of Scotland and in 
parts of western Ireland. 

Question 2. What are the advantages and disadvan- 
tages of subsistence farming? [One main disadvantage 



40 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



has been mentioned above: to find the important 
advantage remember that the price of any commodity 
is affected by conditions thousands of miles away ; for 
example, a bumper crop of wheat in Canada will lower 
wheat prices everywhere.] 

A broad distinction may be drawn between farming in 
eastern Great Britain and farming in the west. The drier 



.O ,£o MLS. ^ I J 

61 




5 

2_ 


«k * 


[£:";;.' 


*'^^H»^v*X 




j ^ WHEAT 
US "DO. MAIM AR.EAS 



Diagram 20. The Distribution of Wheat 

east suits grain crops, such as wheat (diagram 20) and barley, 
but grass grows better in the wetter west. A dry spell in 
summer in eastern England may show a meadow lying 
brown and withered in the hot sun in contrast to a thriving 
wheat field alongside. 'Drought never brought famine in 
England' was a farmers' saying in the days when Britain 
depended on its home-grown grain. A farm, then, in eastern 



FARMING 



4i 



England is usually largely arable, and pasture land is un- 
important, whereas in western Great Britain or in the plain 
of Ireland the farm is mainly meadow land, with but few 
ploughed fields. The farmer in the east is concerned mainly 
with his crops, wheat, barley, roots, while the western 



,5omu5. 








Q&^Jf * 1 




Jfejp m 


• •'■r ■'. A 


%&p <m 


Wij^Mrn 


/•:'6/^ 






IvnJ OATS 




jBBK do. main /\r.eas 



Diagram 21. The Distribution of Oats 

farmer is thinking of his cattle thriving on the rich pasture. 
His few arable fields provide winter feed for his cattle. His 
only grain crop will be oats, which will stand damper con- 
ditions than either wheat or barley, although the oat map 
(diagram 21) shows that, even with this crop, the best areas 
are in the drier east. This does not mean that the farmer 
on the east will have no animals : he usually keeps bullocks 
and sheep which are out at grass in the summer and are 
fed in the winter mainly on hay, roots, cattle-cake, and 



42 THE BRITISH ISLES 

sugar-beet pulp. Sometimes their food costs the farmer 
nothing, for in the two or three weeks after the sugar-beet har- 
vest the sheep are turned into the fields to eat the tops. The 
farmer, too, values his sheep and cattle for their manure. 
The map of wheat distribution (diagram 20) shows that 
the crop is not only mainly on the east side of Britain, but 
that the vale of York is the farthest north of the important 
districts. Wheat likes a warm, sunny summer and, although 
it is grown in eastern Scotland, it is not so widely cultivated 
as in England. Barley will grow on poorer soils and in 
cooler areas than wheat, and thus is important in eastern 
Scotland. 

Question 3. Dr. Johnson (1709-83) once gave as a 
definition of oats : ' A food eaten by horses in England 
and by men in Scotland.' What can be learned from 
this statement? [Lord Elibank's retort was: 'And 
where would you see such horses and such men? 5 ] 

Over much of Great Britain and parts of eastern Ireland 
there is much mixed farming, the farms are neither pre- 
dominantly arable nor mainly meadow land. Some of 
these farmers keep part of their land as permanent pasture 
and the remainder ploughed, whereas others favour a 
system in which all fields are ploughed in turn but, when 
grass is sown, the meadow is allowed to remain pasture for 
some years. 

Question 4. Parts of Essex nearest to London have 
become important in recent years for dairy cattle, 
although the area is not climatically suitable. Why 
has this happened? 

It is clear from what has been written that, with the 
exception of grass, it is the common practice of British 
farmers to grow a different crop tfn a field every year. This 
rotation of crops has a number of advantages. Different 
crops require different products from the soil and so a 



FARMING 43 

change of crop rests the ground. It is possible to grow the 
same crop year after year, for at Rothamsted Experimental 
Station wheat has been grown for a century on the same 
field. Very careful use of fertilizers, however, is necessary, 
and the crops become much more susceptible to disease. 
Again, a corn crop allows the weeds to multiply, whereas it 
is possible to keep a field of roots continuously hoed through- 
out the summer. The loosening of the soil between the 
rows is done by horse-hoe, that is, a horse pulls an instrument 
containing a number of hoes, so that four or more rows are 
dealt with at once. The initial 'singling' or thinning-out 
of the crop and the subsequent hoeing in the rows are done 
by hand-hoe. In the Fens, where crops are heavy, some 
growers have the important process of singling done by 
hand : it is often done by women who go up and down the 
rows on their hands and knees! Hoeing is a continuous 
farming operation from May until harvest; it not only 
improves a root-crop — 'the more you hoe, the more they'll 
grow,' as is said in Norfolk — but leaves the field clean for 
the following crop. 

Question*}. If the main crops of an East Anglian 

farmer are wheat, barley, grass for hay, and sugar-beet, 

wheat is planted in autumn, the others' in spring. The 

hay harvest precedes those of wheat and barley, and 

sugar-beet lifting does not take place until October, 

November, and December. These facts show another 

advantage of rotation of crops. Explain. 

The crops in a rotation obviously depend on the part of 

the country, and to-day there is no rigid system. Three 

examples may be given. 

Example I 

Potatoes, sown in spring, harvested in September, and the 
field then prepared for 

Wheat, sown in October or November, and harvested in 
the following August. 



44 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Grass, sown in spring when the wheat is only showing a 
few inches. The harvesting of the wheat does not affect the 
young grass, and the meadow is used for hay the following 
year. The next year pigs and chicken are 'folded' over it. 
This means that the runs of the pigs and chicken are sys- 
tematically moved across the meadow. 

Question 6. Folding not only provides food for the 
pigs and chicken, but is of benefit to the land. How? 

Example II 

Barley, sown in spring and grass planted as soon as the 
barley is showing green. 

Grass, for one or two years, cut for hay or used as feed for 
animals. 

Wheat. 

Sugar-beet or other root-crop. 

Example HI 

On the chalk and limestone hills of eastern England, where 
the soil is thin,- 'sheep and corn 5 farming has long been 
carried on, although changes are now taking place. Under 
this system two grain crops, usually barley, are grown in a 
four-year period, and in the other two years fodder crops, 
vetches, clover, kale, swedes, are grown, on which sheep are 
folded. Not only are these fodder crops less exhausting 
than grain, but the poor land is enriched with the manure 
of the sheep, and even the treading of their small feet, the 
1 golden hoof,' is of benefit to the light soil. Sheep are an 
integral part of the farming method. 

It has been mentioned above that changes are occurring 
in downland farming. The reasons for the change are 
many. Not only has there been a fall in the demand for 
barley, but also a change in the kind of mutton asked for by 



FARMING 45 

housewives, smaller joints being now preferred in place of 
the larger ones obtained from the heavy type of down sheep. 
Folding sheep is an expensive operation, too, for it necessi- 
tates the frequent movement of hurdles across a field. 
Downland farmers have tried to solve their problem in 
many ways. Some still practise the old method, but have 
substituted varieties of early maturing sheep in place of 
the breeds formerly used. In some areas costs have .been 
reduced by laying down land to grass, and fattening sheep 
mainly on this, instead of the older practice of folding on 
clover and roots. In other districts, e.g. the Wiltshire 
Downs and parts of the South Downs, farmers have changed 
to dairying, but, of course, this is only possible if water is 
easily obtainable. It might be thought that this would 
be an expensive change, because of the cost of cow sheds 
and other farm buildings, but even this difficulty has been 
overcome by the invention of the c open-air bail' system. 
Under this method the cows never leave the pastures: 
instead of the cows going to the cow shed to be milked, the 
cow shed, a four- or six-stall movable 'bail,' or shed open 
on one side, complete with milking machinery, comes to the 
cows. The bail is brought to a different place in the mea- 
dows every day, and thus the meadow is thoroughly manured 
without the usual expense of carting and spreading. 

It is difficult to foretell the future of downland farming, 
for none can say whether the methods now being tried will 
prove permanent or not. Many people, however, hold that 
sheep will never long be absent from the downs. 

Another point about rotation of crops must be mentioned 
which is not quite so easy to understand. If a man and his 
son have a small vegetable garden behind their house it is 
not difficult to realize that it is better for them to cultivate 
all the garden rather than to put twice as much work in 
digging, hoeing, weeding, etc., on one-half of it. They 
would certainly get larger crops if they concentrated on the 



4 6 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



small piece than if only one of them worked it, but they 
would not get twice as much. Let the argument now be 
used for a farmer. If he has the capital and machinery 
available, is it better for him to farm 1,000 acres or 500? 
He will certainly get more crops out of the 1,000 acres than he 



& ,5okls. <si $ y 




i4 *y 




e/ /d£ 


^ 


mP\ 




c0^7mK 


Wkm Jmk 


<mM§ W&sj^w) ■ 


X\ 


'. •'. '. >-^( c -S&' 




L^J BEEP CATTLE. 

UsHi DO. MAIN A.^E-AS 





Diagram 22. The Distribution of Beef Cattle 

would with the same labour concentrated on 500 acres, but, 
as against this, he will have to pay the extra rent on 500 acres. 
In parts of Canada, where rents are low, this will not matter 
much, and the Canadian farmer will cultivate the 1,000 
acres, but in England, where the 500 acres may mean 
another £500 a year in rent, it will pay the farmer better to 
concentrate on the smaller area. This is the reason why 
the yield of wheat per acre in Canada is much less than in 



FARMING 47 

England. It is not that the Canadian farmer does not 
know his job as well as the Englishman, but that the less 
intensive method of farming pays him better. The in- 
tensive farming of England, which obviously takes far 
more out of the land, makes rotation of crops still more 
necessary. 

An account of crop farming has occupied most of this 
chapter, and it is necessary now to consider a farmer with a 
different outlook, the cattle farmer, mainly to be found in 
the wet, western plains. Cattle are reared for two purposes 
in the British Isles, milk and beef, and it is usually found that 
the farmer concentrates on one of these. If the farm is such 
that some of the meadow land is scattered, because of 
stretches of bog or moorland, and so twice-daily milking 
would be difficult, the farmer is probably interested in 'beef 
cattle. The best example in the British Isles of this is in 
the stretch of plain behind Dublin, where bog makes the 
meadows in many cases difficult of access. Farms such as 
these usually sell their bullocks to other farmers to be fattened. 
Scattered throughout Great Britain there are some pastures 
where it is possible to fatten cattle on grass alone; a lean 
bullock turned out in spring will be ready for the butcher 
by autumn. These 'fattening' pastures are often drained 
marshland, which is so wet in the winter that the land could 
never be prepared for summer crops, but, in summer, when 
drier, the meadows not only provide rich grass but, because 
the subsoil is moist, remain lush and green even throughout 
periods of drought. Sun is necessary to make the grass rich 
enough for fattening, and so the best of these pastures are 
not in the wettest parts of the country. It is common for 
the farmers in these districts not to rear their own cattle, 
but to buy bullocks in the spring. Detail will be added in 
the various regions later in the book ; it is sufficient here to 
tabulate the main areas : (a) in Leicester, Rutland, Northamp- 
tonshire, particularly along the valleys of the Welland and 
the Nen ; (b) Norfolk, the drained marshland near the Yare 



4 8 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



(see diagram 47) ; (c) parts of the Severn valley and its 
tributaries; (d) the drained marshland of northern Somerset; 
(e) north-eastern Scotland (see also diagram 22). 




DAIRY CATTLE. 

DO. MAIN AR.E.AS 



Diagram 23. The Distribution of Dairy Cattle 

The dairy farmer (diagram 23) may also fatten some of 
his bullocks for beef, although his main concern will be 
for milk. Again, it has already been said that farmers in 
eastern Great Britain usually keep some bullocks. Many 
of these farmers buy more in the autumn, often from Ireland, 
fatten them during the winter, and sell them off in the 
following spring. 

Question 7. If a dairying area has good communica- 
tions with a nearby industrial district, the milk is sent 



FARMING 



49 



there fresh ; if, however, there is no market near by or 
communications are poor, the farmer usually sells the 
milk locally to factories to be made into butter and 
cheese. Why is this? (The making of butter and 
cheese by farmers or their wives has decreased con- 
siderably in recent years.) 

The broad outlines of British farming have now been 
described; but one crop, potatoes, used as food for both 



■O , ^Q MLS. ~/J 






i ' 


Jtf 








4 


y% 


* 


~> 






^A 


\j 




fell 


Or-£ 


h *3 


> 




4 j 


L^J POTATOES 

HI I>0. KAINAREAS 







Diagram 24. The Distribution of Potatoes 



men and animals, is so widely grown over Great Britain 
and Ireland that it requires special mention. The wide dis- 
tribution is easily understood when it is realized that not 
only will potatoes give a fair crop on poor ground, but that 



50 THE BRITISH ISLES 

they will also grow in damp areas. In some of the wet, 
sunless districts of western Ireland, potatoes are one of the 
few possible crops, and are a staple food of the people who 
grow them. 

Question 8. It is not worth a farmer's while growing 
potatoes on a large scale, that is, to sell outside his 
immediate locality, unless he can get a really good 
crop. Why is this? [Think of the price.] 

Question g . Diagram 24 shows the main areas. By 
thinking of the coal areas in diagram 1 6 which indicate 
the industrial districts, and thus the regions of dense 
population, suggest where the potatoes are likely to 
be sent. 

Other animals and crops afe of much less importance, 
being often found in one or two special areas, so that 
it will be more convenient to discuss them in the regions 
concerned. 



Examination Qttestions 

1 . What are the principal British areas in which (a) wheat 
growing, (b) dairy farming, (c) sheep farming are carried 
on? Select one important area for each of these occupa- 
tions, and explain how conditions in each area are suited 
to the particular occupation carried on. (C.W.B.) 

2. Name three regions in different parts of the British 
Isles which have more than sixty inches of rain a year. 
Explain (a) why they receive such heavy rainfall, (b) how 
the rainfall affects the use of the land. (Oxford.) 

3. Explain why it is that (a) East Anglia has less rain than 
Wales, and (b) there is more arable farming in East Anglia 
than in Wales. (Oxford.) 



FARMING 



5i 



4- 





J. 


jr. 


M. 


A. 


M. 


J. 


J. 


A. 


S. 


0. 


N. 


D. 


Year 


A. Temp. (°F.) 
Rain (in.) 


44.4 
5-5 


44-3 
5-2 


45-0 
4-5 


48-0 
3-7 


52-2 
3-2 


56-7 
3-2 


58-8 
3-8 


58-9 
4-8 


56-6 
41 


51-5 
5-6 


47-5 
5-5 


45-5 
6-6 


50-8 
55-6 


B. Temp. (°P.) 
Rain (in.) 


37-6 
1-5 


391 
1-3 


41-8 
1-5 


46-7 
1-4 


52-8 
1-8 


58-5 
2-1 


61-9 
2-2 


611 
2-3 


56-9 
1-6 


49-4 
2-4 


431 
1-9 


38-9 
1-9 


490 
21-9 



Assuming the above statistics to belong to two places 
near sea level in the British Isles, suggest a location for each 
and give reasons for your suggestions. State briefly the 
types of farming you might expect to find in the neighbour- 
hood of these places. (London.) 



CHAPTER V 



SCOTLAND 

The N.E.-S.W. trend of the 'Caledonian 5 period of moun- 
tain building was mentioned in Chapter I, but the giant 
mountains which once existed in Scotland are now worn 
away, and are to-day but rolling upland. Diagram 25 
shows a triple division of Scotland : to the north lie the 

Highlands, a barren plateau 

region with an average height 

// r y of from two to three thousand 

(S /> ^ f ee t; to the south the Southern 

Uplands, lower and less rugged 
than the Highlands ; while in the 
centre is the Rift Valley. A rift 
valley is formed by the sinking 
of the land between two roughly 
parallel cracks, but, in this case, 
the sinking took place so long 
ago, perhaps 400 million years, 
that the surface has been much 
altered by weathering and only in 
the north is the edge of the rift 
still clearly seen. Later than this there welled up, from 
deep down in the earth, volcanic material, some of which 
forms a line of flat-topped grassy hills, rising to some 1,500- 
2,000 ft. across the valley. 

In this book simple sketch-maps, to be copied, will be 
given, showing the main physical features, coal-fields, etc., 
of every region. The geography of the area will then be 
discussed, and the main facts must be added to the map 
which has been copied until it is a map summarizing the 
chief aspects. Where possible, help has been given in the 
drawing of outlines and physical features. Thus there is an 

52 




Diagram 25. The Division of 
Scotland into Three Regions 



SCOTLAND 



53 



inset in diagram 26 entitled 'How to begin.' The fact 
that the head of the estuary of the Forth is roughly half-way 
between those of Clyde and Tay is pointed out, and the 
N.E.-S.W. 'grain' has been mentioned above. The heads 




Diagram 26. Sketch-map: the Central Lowlands of Scotland 

of the estuaries should be sketched first, then the rivers, 
the remainder of the coast-line, the Highlands, and the 
Southern Uplands. It is advisable to sketch the volcanic 
hills as one continuous area to begin with, as suggested in 
the inset. The main coal-fields should then be shown, 
numbered, and a key given to their names and to all shading 
(see diagram 1 6 for names of coal-fields) . 

The Lanark Coal-field. 

This is the greatest industrial region in Scotland, for it 
produces about one-half of the country's coal. It has been 



54 THE BRITISH ISLES 

said that if a man puts his head into the engine room of any 
British ship on any of the seven seas and shouts 'Mac !' his 
call will be answered. This story gives the clue to Scottish 
industry on the Lanark field : the importance of engineering, 
and indeed of iron and steel goods generally. In fact, it is 
difficult to think of iron and steel goods which are not made 
in Glasgow, Coatbridge, Wishaw, Airdrie, Motherwell, or 
the smaller towns near by. In Glasgow one-half of the 
workpeople are metal workers. The Lanark field was one 
of those rich in ' black-band ' ironstone, but to-day iron ore 
for the blast furnaces is imported mainly from Algeria, 
Spain, and Sweden. The most important industry of all is 
shipbuilding, and the yards are to be found on both banks 
of the lower Clyde : this is the greatest shipbuilding area 
in the world, the birthplace of such giants as the Queen Mary 
and the Queen Elizabeth. When a ship is launched from the 
slips it is not finished, even the engines have still to be fitted, 
and thus calm, deep water is essential. Shipbuilding is 
usually carried on, not only where deep protected water' is 
present, but also where coal and iron are accessible. Build- 
ing a ship is not just a question of steel plates and rivets ; a 
considerable quantity of finished machinery, boilers, tur- 
bines, winches, pumps, and instruments, must be fitted before 
the ship is ready for sea. Much of this, although valuable, is 
bulky and difficult to transport and, in the British Isles, 
shipbuilding areas have usually the associated industries 
of marine engineering. Although the hull is to-day built 
of steel, there is still a large amount of wood used in the 
construction of flooring and cabins, and thus timber and 
paint industries are often near by. These, as well as others 
dependent on foreign supplies, soap, flour-milling, are 
mainly concentrated in towns along the Clyde. Two of the 
bigger ones, Dumbarton and Greenock, are shown on the 
sketch-map ; both are shipbuilding centres, and Greenock is 
important for sugar-refining as well. m In one town, too, 
Paisley, cotton is king. 



H. J. Smith 
THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. Loch Affric, Inverness-shire 




Sport and General 
SHIPBUILDING ON THE CLYDE. A famous yard. Note the 
ship on the stocks 



SCOTLAND 55 

In the two other coal-fields, those of Ayr, and Fife and 
Midlothian, export is important. From the Ayr field much 
is sent to Ireland, particularly Belfast, while about one-half 
the coal of the eastern field is exported to Scandinavia and 
the Baltic countries, mainly through the ports of Methil and 
Burntisland. Although there are cotton mills and engineer- 
ing works at Kilmarnock, the Ayr field has not given rise 
to a large number of factory towns. The industries of the 
east deal principally with flax, used in the manufacture of 
linen and linoleum, hemp for rope, and jute for sacking. All 
these raw materials have to be imported, for, although flax 
has been grown here, its cultivation to-day is negligible. 
Even as far back as the sixteenth century linen was an im- 
portant export : it was, of course, a cottage industry and, 
even to-day, there are many villages with small factories of 
linen and linoleum in the Fife peninsula, between the 
estuaries of Tay and Forth. It is not always easy to explain 
why industries have started in certain towns, for geography 
deals with the doings of men and women, and the reasons 
for their actions may not be easy to follow or may not be 
known. It is not possible in a short book to deal with all 
cases in detail, but the story of jute in Dundee will illustrate 
the many factors that may influence the growth of an in- 
dustry. The manufacture of linen at Dundee, like that of 
the Fife peninsula mentioned above, was based on local 
supplies. The town was a port, and therefore the addition 
of hemp, based on imports from Russia, was not surprising. 
A third fibre, jute, imported from the Ganges delta, was 
added about 1830. Hemp was difficult to procure during 
the Crimean War, and jute became more important. The 
use of whale oil for softening jute, for Dundee was then a 
whaling port, and the fact that there were, and still are, 
many Scotsmen in Calcutta, were probably factors which 
helped to increase the importance of the industry. The 
position to-day is that Dundee manufactures jute, hemp, 
and flax ; Dunfermline, damasks ; and Kirkcaldy, linoleum, 



56 THE BRITISH ISLES 

using hessian from Dundee as a base. The flax is imported 
principally from the Baltic states and Russia. Dundee also 
manufactures jam, from locally grown fruit, and marmalade. 

Qiiestion I. Why should Dundee manufacture marmalade? 
[Think (a) when British fruit is gathered, (b) when 
Seville oranges are for sale in Britain.] 

The extraction of oil from a rock called oil-shale has been 
an important industry in Midlothian and Linlithgow, just 
west of Edinburgh, but it has declined with the exhaustion 
of the richer rocks. To-day a by-product, ammonia, is 
more important than the oil, and from this and sulphuric 
acid a valuable fertilizer, sulphate of ammonia, is made. 

Edinburgh, originally a fortress town built on an old 
volcanic plug in the six-mile gap between the Pentland 
Hills and the coast, became the capital of Scotland. Its 
industries are engineering, textiles, paper-making, printing, 
beer, and whisky. The paper-making and printing indus- 
tries are associated with the fact that the capital became the 
legal centre of Scotland, and a university town. It is easy 
to import wood-pulp, the raw material of most papers, from 
Scandinavia, and the necessary water supply was available. 
Paper is made not only in Edinburgh, but in many small 
villages in the nearby Esk valley. Beer and whisky need a 
good water supply, and barley is grown locally. 

The farming of the Lowlands will now be considered, that 
is, of fertile Strathmore (=the great strath or vale), between 
the Highlands and the volcanic hills, and of the plains that lie 
to the south. The broad difference between farming on 
the east and that on the west, discussed in Chapter IV, is 
true here : the east is important for crops, and the west for 
dairying. The crops of the east are wheat, barley, oats, 
potatoes, and roots. Only in East Lothian are wheat and 
barley really important, and the fertile Lothians, particu- 
larly to the east of Edinburgh, are sometimes known as the 
'Garden of Scotland.' Here there is usually a six-year 



SCOTLAND 57 

rotation, grass, oats, potatoes, wheat, turnips, barley. The 
east is very famous for potatoes, particularly the Lothians 
and to the east of the Fife peninsula, and Perthshire and 
Angus have an extensive export of seed potatoes to England, 
and even to Spain and South Africa. 

Question 2. Dairy cows are very important on the 
west, but on the east they are found in large numbers 
only near Edinburgh and in the fertile Carse of Gowrie, 
to the west of Dundee. Explain. [N.B. — Edinburgh 
and Dundee are the biggest towns of the east.] [Carse 
is a Scots term for a stretch of alluvial land along the 
bank of a river.] 

Question 3. Cattle reared on the east are mainly for 
beef. Explain. (Page 41.) 

Question 4. (i) The volcanic hills are given over mainly 
to sheep. Why is this? (Page 37.) 

(ii) They also contain many reservoirs supplying 
water to the densely peopled Lowlands. How are they 
suitable for this purpose? 

Question 5. In south Ayrshire the milk is often used 
for cheese. Why? (Page 48.) 

Question 6. Girvan, to the south of Ayr, is famous for 
early potatoes, whereas the Fife peninsula produces 
8 main-crop. 5 Explain. (Page 18.) 

Two points may perhaps be added. Potatoes and oats 
are grown in the west, but to nothing like the same extent 
as in the drier east. Fruit and glasshouses, mainly for 
tomatoes, are found around Lanark; indeed, the apples of 
Lanark are mentioned as far back as the eighth century. 

Towns. Perth and Stirling may be considered together, 
for they have much in common. They are both situated 
in gaps in the volcanic hills, and so became market towns in 
peace and fortresses in war. They were small ports, and 
the lowest bridging points of their rivers. To-day the firths 



58 THE BRITISH ISLES 

are bridged nearer the sea, and the ports of Tay and Forth 
are Dundee and Leith. 

Question 7. The kingdom of Fife retained its inde- 
pendence, owing probably to its isolation, longer than 
most parts of Scotland. Explain its isolation. 

Glasgow, the greatest Scottish port, is largely the creation 
of men. At the end of the eighteenth century it was possible, 
at low tide, to paddle across the Clyde, so shallow was the 
river, but, by making the river narrower to increase the 
scour, by blasting away hard rocks in the river bed, and by 
systematic dredging, it has become possible for big ships to 
reach Glasgow. It has been said that some stretches of the 
Clyde below Glasgow are as artificial as the Suez Canal. 

Question 8. Why is Glasgow more important than 
Leith or Dundee? [Think of (a) the number of en- 
trances on west and east, (b) the importance of the 
Lanark coal-field, (c) the countries with which the 
three ports are likely to trade.] 

It should not be difficult from what has been said to 
indicate the imports and exports of the chief ports. It must 
be realized that the import of food is always large into all 
the manufacturing areas of the British Isles. Two points, 
not obvious, may be mentioned. Leith imports food, mainly 
butter, eggs, and bacon, from Denmark, Holland, and the 
Baltic states, which is sold to all the Rift Valley towns. 
Grangemouth not only imports food, but is also concerned 
with the import of Swedish iron, timber, and pit-props. 

Diagram 27 has been included to suggest how a finished 
sketch-map should look. The map has defects. It had 
perforce to be done entirely in ink, with none of the ad- 
vantages that can be gained by the use of pencil for the 
uplands, and perhaps a coloured pencil for the coal-fields. 
The shading for the coal-fields has been done with lines 
close together in an attempt to make them stand out, but 



60 THE BRITISH ISLES 

it is not suggested that this should be copied. A wide 
shading in coloured pencil is much to be preferred. Se- 
condly, it would be a better map if it were bigger, say the 
size of a page in a mapping book. One word about shading 
may be added. Well-spaced, free-hand shading in pencil 
saves much time, and the direction, bottom-left to top- 
right, used here for the upland, is the easiest for a right- 
handed person. (Shading in black, used for some of the 
maps in this book, is ideal with Indian ink, but should not 
be used for sketch-maps.) 

The Highlands. 

North of the Central Lowlands lie the Scottish Highlands, 
divided into two by the trench of Glenmore (=the great 
glen or valley). Lochs in this trench have been linked 
where necessary to form the Caledonian Canal. There is a 
plain only on the east coast. 

In drawing the sketch-map (diagram 28) there is no need 
to copy the exact number of indentations along the west 
coast; the main point is to show a very indented coast. 
These bays are fiords, that is, inlets affected by ice action, 
with steep sides and a bar at the entrance. It is probable 
that this bar is the moraine of the glacier that flowed down 
the inlet. Small fishing villages, often connected with one 
another only by water, as in Norway, nestle in the fiords, and 
the whole coast reminds the visitor of a lower, less rugged 
Norway. Technically the whole coast is 'drowned,' that is, 
the sea has risen so that former valleys have become inlets. 
Although there are differences between one part of the 
Highlands and another, for example, the north-west is more 
rugged than the Grampians to the south of Glenmore — all 
may be thought of as a plateau, with brown as the prevailing 
colour, brightened in summer with the vivid green of 
bracken or in autumn with the rich purple of heather. 
With poor, thin soil, heavy rainfall, and a cool summer, 
much is almost uninhabited. 



SCOTLAND 



61 



Question g. (i) Why is the soil thin? (Page 9.) 
(ii) Give two reasons why the summers are cool. 
(Pages 20 and 37.) 




L A UPLAND 

& t So MLS. 



HOW TO fi&GIM 



Diagram 28. Sketch-map: the Highlands of Scotland 

In the valleys farmers are still to be found who, by growing 
oats and potatoes, keeping sheep, a few cows, some chicken, 
and a pig, are almost self-sufficient. If such farmers, or 
crofters, as they are called, live near the sea, they are fisher- 
men as well. Crofters have been much more numerous in 
the past, for, at the end of the eighteenth century and later, 



62 THE BRITISH ISLES 

many landlords turned their land into sheep-walks, and the 
crofters were ejected. Many of them emigrated to Canada 
and, after about 1850, to Australia, and a magazine or news- 
paper of either of these two countries usually shows a large 
sprinkling of Scots names. The sheep-walks are large, often 
of thousands of acres, and the sheep are brought to lower 
ground during the winter. More recently some of the land 
has been kept as large sporting estates, used for deer- 
stalking, grouse-shooting, and salmon-fishing, and these 
to-day cover large areas. The life of the crofter is a hard 
one, and many of the young people are drifting to the towns 
or becoming gamekeepers, and are not following their 
fathers' occupation. However, there are industries. The 
railway and, within recent years, the cheap motor car 
have made the Highlands a tourist ground, and added to the 
importance of some of the towns, for example, Oban and 
Inverness, and of some particularly beautiful districts, such 
as the Trossachs. In recent years, too, hydro-electric 
undertakings have invaded the Highlands. There are 
aluminium works at Foyers, Fort William, and Kinloch- 
leven. Alumina is found in all clays, but it is a clay called 
bauxite, the name derived from Les Baux, near Aries in 
southern France, which is the commercial source of the 
metal. The first stage of manufacture is carried out at 
Burntisland (diagram 27), using bauxite from France, and 
at Larne in northern Ireland, using ore from Antrim. It is 
the final process which takes place in the Highlands, for this 
requires very high power and indeed this is the sole attrac- 
tion. Not only has the raw material to be imported, but 
there is not even a population that can be drawn upon for 
labour and, in addition, communications are not easy. 

Question 10. What advantages have the Highlands as 
a source of power? 

It is probable that the Highlands will be increasingly used 
in this way, although there is strong opposition from many 



SCOTLAND 63 

people, who hold that these undertakings will not benefit 
the people of the Highlands, but will ruin some of the most 
beautiful, unspoiled scenery in the British Isles. In their 
view the Highlands should be kept as a national park. 

Question 11. Give the names of any countries which 
have national parks. 

Life in the Western Isles is similar to that in the Highlands, 
except that farming is largely a part-time occupation, for 
fishing is probably the main source of income to the crofters. 
From one district, Harris, a part of the island of Lewis, comes 
Harris tweed, hand-woven from local wool, fashionable, 
expensive, but good. 

The plain to the east forms a great contrast to the thinly 
peopled plateau. Grain, principally oats, and roots, mainly 
turnips and swedes, are grown, and cattle are reared. Sheep 
are not as important as cattle. The Buchan plateau, marked 
on diagram 28, is particularly famous for the fattening of 
cattle, mainly of the Aberdeen-Angus breed. In fact, the 
usual rotation, oats, roots, oats, grass for three years or more, 
is designed primarily to provide feeding stuffs. The beef is 
sent to the Central Lowlands and to London. 

Granite is quarried in the Peterhead and Aberdeen areas. 
Aberdeen (=at the mouth of the Dee) is a focus of routes 
from north and south, as well as along the valleys of the 
Don and the Dee, valleys which are cultivated in their lower 
stretches. The town is a market for fat cattle, and was 
mentioned in Chapter I as a large fishing port. Other 
smaller fishing ports are found along the coast, for example, 
Peterhead and Wick. It has not been thought necessary to 
show obvious railway lines on the map, for example, the 
route from Perth to Aberdeen and to Inverness, but the line 
from Perth to Inverness across the Highlands has been 
shown, for it illustrates well the use of river valleys as routes. 
&n atlas will show the other lines and, to most people, their 
fewness comes as a surprise. 
* c 



64 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



The Southern Uplands. 

In this sketch-map, diagram 29, it is necessary to draw 
some rivers, not because they are big or important, but 



F.oC 




Boundary oe 

ENGLAND & SCOTLAND 



HOW TO BEGl 
THE. FIGURES SHOW THE. OR.DE.fc 



Diagram 29. Sketch-map: the Southern Uplands of Scotland 

because their valleys make valuable routes across this 
barrier between England and the fertile heart of Scotland. 
In fact, the independence of Scotland to such a late date 
has been ascribed to the difficulty of penetrating to the ri«h 
centre, for the routes were all easily defended. The inset 



SCOTLAND 65 

'How to begin 5 suggests the order in which the map should 
be sketched. 

The Southern Uplands are lower and less rugged than 
the Highlands, and their smooth, green hills are famous for 
sheep and grouse. Hill farms of rough grass and heather 
are often run in conjunction with valley farms, where the 
sheep can be wintered. A number of small market towns, 
Hawick, Galashiels, and Peebles, manufacture woollens, 
using coal from the Central Lowlands. The industry is 
old, but the area was obviously at a disadvantage after the 
Industrial Revolution, already discussed in Chapter III. 
However, the industry did not die out, for competition with 
more favoured areas has been met by concentrating on finer 
quality goods, that is, where the cost of the raw material 
bears a smaller proportion to the final value of the article 
made. This means that the cost of the transport of coal or 
of raw material is only a small percentage of the final value 
of the manufactured goods. This, in turn, has had an effect 
on the type of sheep bred, for the factories have demanded 
finer wools. This has also been met by the import of fine 
merino wools from Australia. It may be mentioned here 
that the word tweed as the name for a type of woollen cloth 
is nc£ derived from the river Tweed, but seems to be due to a 
misreading of an invoice, by a clerk, of tweels, a Scottish 
form of twills. The mistake, no doubt, has been of great 
value to this woollen-manufacturing region. 

Question 12. (i) In the western plain and that border- 
ing the Solway Firth, the rearing of dairy cattle is the 
main occupation, while the valleys of the Tweed and 
its tributaries are given over mainly to mixed farming, 
with oats, barley, wheat, turnips, sheep, and cattle. 
Explain. (Page 40.) 

(ii) If the areas in the west are near the main railway 
lines the milk is sent to industrial cities, such as New- 
castle, Liverpool, or Birmingham ; if they are away from 



66 THE BRITISH ISLES 

the main lines the milk is made into butter and cheese, 
and sent to the same markets. Explain. 

Pig-farming is common in these dairying districts, for 
pigs may be fed on waste products after butter and cheese 
have been made. 

The hydro-electric power schemes in the area shown on 
the sketch-map supply electricity to a considerable part of 
south-west Scotland. 

Copy from an atlas the main railway routes across the 
Southern Uplands: (a) the east coast route; (b) the 'Waver- 
ley' route, Carlisle, Liddel valley, Teviot valley, Tweed 
valley, Edinburgh ; (c) Carlisle, Annan valley, Clyde valley, 
Glasgow; (d) Carlisle, Dumfries, Nith valley, Kilmarnock, 
Glasgow. 

Question 13. In the Central Lowlands some three- 
quarters of the total population of Scotland (about five 
million) are found in about one-quarter of the total area. 
Explain. 

Examination Questions 

1 . Draw a sketch-map of the eastern half of the Lowlands 
of Scotland. Mark three towns which illustrate the varied 
occupations of that area. Account for the main industries 
of each of the three towns. (Cambridge.) 

2. Compare Glasgow with Edinburgh in regard to (a) posi- 
tion, (b) importance. Illustrate your answer with a sketch- 
map. (Cambridge.) 

3. In the Central Lowlands of Scotland there are many 
industries. Enumerate four of these, say in what area they 
are carried on, and account for their growth. (Oxford.) 

4. Select from Scotland one region where the population 
is large and one region where it is small, and explain why 
there are differences in the regions you choose. (Oxford.) 

5. Suggest a division of Scotland into natural regions. 
Briefly describe the regions. (Bristol.) 



SCOTLAND 67 

6. Draw a sketch-map of Scotland south of the Highlands, 
indicating and naming : 

(a) The general relief features. 

(b) The rivers Clyde, Forth, Tweed, and lower Tay. 

(c) Three coal-fields. 

(d) One important sheep-farming area, and one im- 
portant cattle-farming area. 

(e) Greenock, Perth, Edinburgh. (London.) 

7. Divide Scotland into three regions. State briefly the 
reasons for your divisions under the following headings: 
(a) relief, (b) occupations of the people. (London.) 

8. Compare and contrast the eastern and western parts 
of the Central Lowlands of Scotland under the headings : 
(a) climate and farming, (b) industrial development and 
trade. (London.") 



CHAPTER VI 

WALES 

Wales is a hilly peninsula ; more than one-quarter is over 
i ,000 ft. above sea level, with but a coastal fringe of lower 
land. The 'Caledonian trend 5 in the north should be 
remembered, and it is well marked by the Menai Straits, and 




HOW TO &6.GIN tf> Be - Z-k as 

CH) NOTE. E.. E.OGE. OF WELSH MASSIF 



Diagram 30. Sketch-map : Wales. How to Begin 

by the group of mountains near Snowdon, commonly known 
as Snowdonia. These are wild, rugged, and with steep 
slopes and, although the maximum height is but 3,500 ft., 
the scenery here does resemble in its grandeur the far higher 
mountains of other lands. Further south the hills are not 
only lower but more rounded and gentle in outline. The 
whole of the Welsh 'massif 5 is wet, much is moorland, al- 
though bog and bare rock cover large areas. Even low 

68 



WALES 



69 



altitudes of less than 1 ,000 ft. may sometimes be shrouded 
in cloud for days on end, and it is clear that the rearing of 




UPUAN& 
COAL 
,20MUS^ -- BOON©M>Y[MUCH SjMPUFtfcS} 



Diagram 31. Sketch-map: Wales 

sheep is the only farming occupation possible. In fact, 
Wales has the greatest density of sheep per acre of any 
country in the world. The rough grazing varies in quality 
from those areas which can carry one sheep per acre to 



70 THE BRITISH ISLES 

those which must allow seven acres per sheep, and from 
those which are in use all the year to some which can only 
be used for four or five months. It is thus usual to bring 
the animals down to the shelter of valley farms during the 
winter months. The wild scenery, particularly of the higher 
parts, attracts many tourists in the summer, and there are 
also many holiday resorts along the coast: Llandudno, 
Barmouth, Aberdovey, Aberystwyth, and others. 

Question i. Liverpool and Birmingham get their water 
supply from the Welsh hills, Liverpool by damming the 
Vyrnwy, a tributary of the Severn, and Birmingham 
by damming the Elan, a tributary of the Wye. What 
are the advantages of Wales for this purpose? 

Diagram 30 shows how to begin to draw a sketch-map of 
Wales and, for many purposes, map II of this diagram would 
be adequate, although diagram 31 is obviously better. 
Little can be added to the ways in which man makes use of 
the Welsh hills; diagram 31 shows the slate quarries and 
hydro-electric power schemes in the Snowdon neighbour- 
hood. Wales has been important for woollen manufacture, 
but this industry is now of small account. Welshpool, in 
the upper Severn valley, is well known for its flannel. 

The cultivated area in Wales is largely the fringe of plain 
along the north, west, and south coasts, and here four times 
as much land is under permanent grass as under the plough. 
Even this statement does not show fully the dominance of 
grass, for it is usually grown as one of the crops in the 
ploughland rotation. The farmers' main concern is cattle- 
rearing, and their small proportion of arable land is mainly 
under fodder crops. Wheat and barley are, naturally, rare, 
but oats are widely grown ; turnips and swedes are the chief 
roots. The plains of the south, and south-west are given 
over mainly to dairy cattle. In Anglesey beef cattle are the 
more important, and there is also some sheep-rearing. In 
the upper reaches of the Severn, Wye, and Usk mountain 



WALES 



7i 



sheep and cattle are reared, while farther down the fattening 
of cattle and, to a less extent, sheep, is carried on ; there is 
also some milk production. 

Question 2. (i) Market gardening is important in the 
plain of South Wales. 

(ii) It has been mentioned above that this area is 
also important for milk. Who are the customers? 




Diagram 32. Sketch-map: the South Wales Coal-field 

Diagram 32 shows a third main region in addition to the 
two already mentioned. It is true that there is a small 
coal-field in North Wales, and there are a number of small 
manufacturing towns along the lower Dee valley ; Wrexham, 
and Ruabon have been marked on diagram 31. Diagram 
32 shows that the southern edge of the South Wales coal-field 
roughly coincides with the southern edge of the highland, 
and it is easy to understand that the coal is more easily 
accessible from the narrow valleys which trench the hills 
than from the general plateau level. 

Question 3 . Diagram 33 shows the position of the 
coal-mines over a large part of the South Wales coal- 
field. What general statement can be made about 
their position? 



72 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



The houses of the miners are huddled in the valleys near 
the coal-pits, and road and railway wind alongside the rivers. 
A walk of a mile or so takes a visitor from one of these 
villages on to the flat- topped, wind-swept, almost unin- 
habited moorland, where it is difficult to believe that 




j5MU6. 



CA(U>3F? 



Diagram 33. Part of the South Wales Coal-field 
(after Demangeon, modified) 

industry is so near at hand. The majority of the pits are 
to be found in the valleys of the three main rivers, Tawe, 
Taff, and Usk, and their tributaries. First pack-horses, 
then canals carried the coal down the valleys to the ports 
at the rivers' mouths, for the railways merely replaced older 
methods. The ports, particularly Cardiff, export coal, for 
the South Wales field and that of Northumberland- 
Durham are the two great exporting coal-fields of Great 
Britain. It is possible to make a rough division of the field 
into three. The west roughly .as far east as the Neath 
valley (diagram 33) produces anthracite, steam coal is 
produced round Rhondda, while to the east house coal is 
found (to remember this think of ash). Steam coal is hard, 
does not crush easily, but gives a good heat. It is thus an 
ideal coal for use in factories and in the stokeholds of ships, 



WALES 73 

and deserves the name which has been given it. The coal 
export trade has, however, suffered from the fact that many 
ships to-day are built to burn oil and not coal. This has 
affected not only the steam coal trade, but also that of 
anthracite, for, forty years ago, the navies of the world, which 
now burn oil, burned anthracite, which had the added 
advantage over steam coal that it gave off very little smoke. 
Anthracite is to-day used in industry, for example, the local 
tin-plate works, and for central-heating furnaces. 

Question 4. Suggest some of the reasons for the change- 
over of ships from coal-burning to oil-burning. [It 
must be remembered that, although there are motor- 
vessels, the majority of ships are driven by steam tur- 
bine, that is, the change is an alteration in the method of 
generating steam. In 19 14, 90 per cent of the ships of 
the world burnt coal, to-day only about 40 per cent.] 
[Think of the number of men required in the engine- 
room, and the cleanliness of refuelling, and the time 
taken for it.] 

The export trade has also been adversely affected by the 
development of hydro - electricity in areas, for example, 
Scandinavia, which were formerly very good markets. 

The great industry of the South Wales coal-field is the 
smelting or refining of minerals. Pontypool and Merthyr 
Tydfil smelted iron from local ore and charcoal prior to the 
Industrial Revolution and, as they are on the coal-field, the 
substitution of coke-smelting was of no disadvantage to the 
industry. 

Qiiestion 5. In the middle of last century a new, 
cheaper process of making steel was invented, but, to 
the iron-masters of Pontypool and Merthyr, it had the 
disadvantage that their local ores were useless, for they 
contained phosphorus, and the new process required 
non-phosphoric ores. The industry continued on im- 
ported ores, particularly from Spain. Steel manufacture 



74 THE BRITISH ISLES 

is now centred mainly in Swansea, Llanelly, Port 
Talbot, and Cardiff. Why should the industry have 
moved in this way? [It should be said that a later 
invention, in which phosphoric ores could be used, did 
not affect matters, for it was, to begin with, much more 
expensive.] 

The Swansea, Llanelly, Port Talbot area deals with other 
minerals as well, tin, zinc, copper, and nickel. Here is the 
greatest centre of the tin-plate industry in the world. To 
make tin-plate a sheet of steel is dipped into a bath of molten 
tin, and then into palm oil to ensure an even surface. The 
film of tin is very thin; in fact, a tobacco or fruit 'tin' is 
about 98 per cent steel. 

Question 6. (i) What are the disadvantages of pure 
tin for the making of ' tins' ? 

(ii) What is the disadvantage of steel for the same 
purpose? 

(hi) There is a large export of tin-plate to Australia 
and Canada. Name some of the articles seen in 
British shops packed in Canadian and Australian tins. 

It is not easy to explain the rise of the tin-plate industry 
in South Wales. All that can be said is that the first tin- 
plate factory was built at Pontypool in the early eighteenth 
century, using Cornish tin and local iron. When the iron 
and steel industry migrated in the eighties of last century that 
of tin-plate moved as well. Already, in fact since the late 
sixteenth century, there had been copper smelting, based on 
Cornish ore, carried on in South Wales, so that the iron, 
steel, and tin-plate industry came to an area already skilled 
in metal working. Changes have, however, occurred since 
this migration. Smelting of non-ferrous metals has de- 
clined for two reasons. It has been said in Chapter III 
that the mining of these metals is now negligible in Great 
Britain and Ireland, and foreign producers have found it 



WALES 75 

more economical to smelt near the mines rather than trans- 
port enormous weights of ore over the sea. Copper smelting 
has declined altogether, much to the advantage of Swansea, 
for the fumes killed the vegetation for miles around, but 
the slag-heaps still, unfortunately, disfigure the landscape. 
To-day crude copper is imported, principally from Chile. It 
is tin, not tin ore, which is imported for the tin-plate in- 
dustry. This comes mainly from Malaya and the Dutch 
East Indies, and a curious point may be noticed here, that 
the tin reaches Swansea not direct, but via London. This 
aspect of the trade of London is dealt with in Chapter XVI. 
Zinc smelting is still carried on with supplies from Australia. 
Zinc is used, among other purposes, for corrugated iron, 
which is steel with a thin coating of zinc; this process is 
called galvanizing. Much is exported to India and other 
tropical countries where, because it is more durable, it is 
often used instead of timber. The author has seen photo- 
graphs of the compound of the Negro workers in the famous 
Katanga mineral area of the Belgian Congo, where the huts 
have corrugated iron walls with thatched roofs ! Nickel, 
imported from Canada, is the latest of the metals attracted 
to this great metallurgical centre. Swansea has recently 
added another industry to its list, the refining of petroleum. 
The crude oil comes in at Swansea, and is then pumped 
through pipe lines to the refineries at Llandarcy, just behind 
Swansea. 

For convenience the Forest of Dean coal-field has been 
shown on diagram 31. This area is of historical interest as 
one of the great centres of the early iron industry, based on 
local ore and charcoal. To-day the area is unimportant. 

Wales may be considered as a peninsula adjoining Eng- 
land, and stretching towards Ireland. The route along the 
north-coast plain is used by the L.M.S.R. from Euston, the 
railway crossing by bridges to Anglesey, and thence to Holy 
Island. From Holyhead ships go to Kingstown (Dun Lao- 
gfeaire, pronounced Dun Leary), near Dublin. The G.W.R. 



76 THE BRITISH ISLES 

from Paddington uses the south-coast plain for its route to 
Fishguard, and so to Rosslare in south-eastern Ireland. 

Question 7. Why have the railway companies in- 
creased the land proportion of the journey to Ireland, 
that is, why not Euston-Liverpool-Kingstown, or 
Paddington-Bristol-Rosslare ? [Think of the speed of 
a ship.] 

Milford Haven, in south-western Wales, has become one 
of the two great fishing ports on the west coast of Britain. 
The rise of the port is due to the enterprise of the G.W.R., 
which has provided not only good dock facilities, but also 
fast trains to carry the fish to market. 

Question 8. (i) What is the name of the other great 
fishing port on the west coast of Britain; it is more 
important than Milford? (Chapter I.) 

(ii) Milford Haven, a drowned valley, is probably the 
best harbour in the whole of the British Isles. Why has 
it not become an important port? 

The Romans, who did not conquer Wales, guarded against 
possible attacks along the north and south coastal routes 
by building fortified camps, for example, at Chester and 
Gloucester. The Severn route was protected by Shrews- 
bury, a fortress town built in a river loop, and thus guarded 
on three sides by water. A thousand years later found the 
Norman attitude the same, and William the Conqueror 
created the three earldoms of the Welsh Marches, Chester, 
Shrewsbury, and Hereford, with the object of preventing 
the Welsh from raiding England. 

Note that to-day railways go from England across the 
Welsh hills up the Dee valley, and so to Barmouth, and up 
the Severn valley, and on to Aberdovey. The Normans did, 
however, penetrate the southern lowlands, and Pembroke, 
the county in the south-west, shows this well, for the northern 
upland half has Welsh names and Welsh people, while tlje 



WALES 77 

southern lowland half has English place-names and people, 
with Norman castles separating the two. The county is 
sometimes called the 'little England beyond Wales. 5 Wales, 
before its conquest by England, was not often under the 
control of one man. Any mountainous country, with its 
valley settlements separated from one another by thinly 
peopled highland, is difficult to weld into a unit, and Wales 
is no exception. There was no town, easily reached from 
all parts, which would serve as a satisfactory capital. This 
difficulty, still present, is well shown by the fact that the 
University of Wales has four university colleges, at Bangor, 
Aberystwyth, Cardiff, and Swansea. 

Question g. (i) What can be noticed about the 
boundary line between Wales and England? 

(ii) W T elsh societies with members scattered over 
much of Wales often meet either at Shrewsbury or in 
London. Why do they do this? [The journey by rail 
from north to south Wales takes longer than from 
north or south Wales to London.] 

Question 10. Examine diagram 66 or a density-of- 
population map in an atlas. Note that there is a 
region of dense population in the south, a moderately 
peopled coastal fringe, and a thinly peopled core. 
Explain ; illustrate the answer with a simple sketch-map. 



Examination Questions 

i. State what you know of the South Wales coal-field 
region under the headings : (a) position and extent, {b) the 
development of coal-mining and the export of coal, (c) in- 
dustries associated with coal-mining. (C.W.B.) 

2. Account for the routes taken by the principal railways 
of Wales, noting the chief steamship connections established 
with Ireland. Draw a sketch-map to illustrate the answer. 
(Cambridge.) 



7 8 THE BRITISH ISLES 

3. Although comparatively scantily populated, the High- 
lands of Scotland and the mountains of central Wales are 
of value to Britain. Describe (a) the present use made of 
each of these highland areas, (b) the possibilities of their 
further development. (Cambridge.) 

4. Write an orderly geographical account of either the 
industrial area of central Scotland or the South Wales 
coal-field. (London.) 



CHAPTER VII 



IRELAND 



Ireland is divided politically into two, Northern Ireland 
or Ulster, and the Irish Free State or Eire, and it is necessary 
to explain how this has come about. Ireland escaped both 
the Roman and Saxon invasions, though not. the Danish, 
but after the Norman conquest of Great Britain, English- 
men settled in the lowlands of Ireland, particularly around 
Dublin. From the seventeenth century onwards large 
numbers of Scots Protestants were settled in the north-east, 
the so-called 'Plantation of Ulster.' Although, in 1800, 
Ireland was joined to Great Britain to form the United 
Kingdom, relations were never happy between the Irish and 
the English, and, in 19 16, the southern Irish proclaimed a 
republic, which, after war in 1919-21, became a self- 
governing dominion of the British Empire. In 1937 Eire 
announced itself to be 'sovereign, independent, democratic.' 
The six north-eastern counties, with people of different de- 
scent and different creed, for Eire is mainly Roman Catholic, 
did not desire this, and they still send members of Parlia- 
ment to Westminster, although they have also a Parliament 
of their own sitting at Belfast. 

Diagram 2 shows some of the physical connections between 
Ireland and Great Britain. The mountains of the north- 
west are comparable with those of the Scottish Highlands, 
and the mountains of Mourne with the Southern Uplands. 
The Rift Valley of Scotland has no exact counterpart, for 
Antrim is a plateau caused by the upwelling of lava such 
as formed the line of volcanic hills in the Central Lowlands 
of Scotland. The Wicklow and Wexford uplands are com- 
parable with the hills of Wales. 

79 



8o 



THE BRITISH ISLES 




OPUAND 



.So MLS. 



Diagram 34. Sketch-map: Ireland 

The sketch-map of Ireland (diagram 34) is not easy, but 
a fairly accurate outline is not difficult if the suggestion 
'How to begin 5 is followed. 

It is often said that Ireland is a plain ringed by hills, 
and this statement does contain a germ of truth, but it needs 



IRELAND . 8 1 

qualification. An atlas map will show that the ring of hills 
is not continuous, and the plain, particularly in the south, 
contains a number of hilly areas. All these upland districts 
usually provide rough pasture for sheep (see diagram 19). 
In the wild rugged highland of the north-west, in Donegal, 
Mayo, and Connemara, sheep can be reared only on the 
better-drained areas, for much is wet, boggy, almost un- 
inhabited moorland. In the valleys of these north-western 
hills, crofters, as in the Highlands of Scotland and the 
Hebrides, practise subsistence farming and are fishermen 
if they live near the sea. The making of hand-made 
Donegal tweed may be compared with the similar industry 
in the Hebrides. 

Much of the central plain is covered with glacial drift, 
and some of this is heavy clay. The land is often badly 
drained, and many lakes have formed in hollows in this 
impervious clay, and mosses have grown in the stagnant 
water. These have died and decayed, and others have 
grown over them until a bog has been formed. The dead 
moss has been changed to peat, an important fuel in a 
country almost without coal. This ill-drained bog land is 
not continuous, although some areas, for example, the Bog 
of Allen to the west of Dublin, cover many square miles. 
Bogs are estimated to cover about one-seventh of Ireland, 
and are extensive in the central plain and in the west. The 
Shannon, the longest river in the British Isles, winds south- 
wards through the plain. It flows through bog -fringed 
lakes, and its valley is often wide and marshy. 

Question 1. The Shannon forms the boundary between 
the old Celtic provinces of Connaught and Leinster. 
Why should the Shannon have become a boundary? 

Coal is almost absent in Ireland, and it will be seen later 
that there is only one important manufacturing area, that 
round Belfast, in the whole of the island. Farming is thus 
the main industry, but, except in the well-drained drier east, 



8a THE BRITISH ISLES 

where oats are very important, and where there is even some 
wheat and barley, the land is given over mainly to pasture 
for cattle (diagrams 20, 21, 22, 23). One crop, potatoes 
(diagram 24), is widespread, for it is found everywhere in 
Ireland, except in highland or boggy areas, and, in some of 
the wet, sunless districts of the west, it is the only crop, other 
than grass, that can be successfully grown. In Eire the 
production of potatoes is about 17 cwt. per annum for every 
man, woman, and child. It is indeed a staple food to many 
Irish peasants, and it was the failure of the crop in the forties 
of last century which led to such widespread emigration,, 
particularly to the U.S.A., that to-day there are more Irish- 
men in New York than in Dublin. But not all this huge 
potato production is used as human food, for much is given 
to animals, chiefly pigs. Nearly every Irish peasant has a 
pig or two, kept in a sty or yard near the house, and the pig 
has been aptly described as 'the gintleman who pays the 
rint.' [With regard to Bernard Shaw's statement that this 
description is of English origin the author can only say that 
Irishmen use it.] The only cereal grown, except in the 
drier, sunnier east, is oats, which, it has been said earlier, 
will grow under wetter conditions than either wheat or 
barley. 

The mainstay of Irish farming, the rearing of cattle, will 
now be discussed. In Northern Ireland both beef and 
dairy cattle are to be found in approximately the same areas, 
the lowlands. In Eire, however, the position is different. 
Over the central plain cattle for beef are more important 
than dairy cattle, for the reason mentioned in Chapter IV, 
the difficulty of milking in farms where meadows may be 
inaccessible from the farmhouse because of bogs. The 
dairying area is the south-west (diagrams 22 and 23). Here 
are to be found parallel ridges of hard sandstone alternating 
with valleys, both running in a roughly W.S.W.-E.N.E. 
direction. The south-west coast has been drowned, and 
the ridges form rocky peninsulas, whereas the drowned 





AN IRISH BOG. 



The Times 
Tilford Bog, Antrim. Note the peat which 
has been cut and stacked 




Topical Press 
AN IRISH HOMESTEAD, KILLARNEY. The standard of life 
of the farm labourer is lower here than in Great Britain 



IRELAND 83 

valleys are 'rias.' This is a Spanish word applied to similar 
inlets in north-west Spain, and the term has been borrowed 
by geographers. It should be noted that a fiord, another 
borrowed term, is a glaciated inlet. 

Question 2. (i) Where are fiords to be found in the 
British Isles? 

(ii) Distinguish between the two forms of inlet, fiord 
and ria. (See diagram 55.) 

The ridges of the south-west are sheep pastures, while the 
fertile valleys, particularly of Lee, Blackwater, and Suir, are 
the home of dairy cattle. The famous 'Golden Vale' of 
Limerick and Tipperary, north of these hills, may be in- 
cluded in this great dairy - farming district. The mild 
winters of these south-western valleys are of advantage. 
Grass will grow for a greater part of the year than in less 
well-favoured districts, and not only is the farmer less 
dependent on hay, roots, and cake, \>vX he does not have to 
house the animals during the winter nights for as many 
months. 

In this dairy-farming area the farmers have formed 
co-operative societies. Central creameries collect the milk 
and make it into butter more cheaply and efficiently than 
the individual farmer could possibly do. Cork and Water- 
ford are ports for the export of butter. Little need now 
be added to complete the picture of Irish farming. Flax, 
dealt with later, is an important crop in Northern Ireland, 
Over all Ireland chicken are numerous, in fact, there are 
about six times as many chicken as there are people, and 
the export of eggs is large. 

Question 3. (i) Why is Ireland called the Emerald 
Isle? 

(ii) Why is the bulk of the milk produced in the 
south-west made into butter and not sold as milk? 

(iii) Pig-rearing is very important in this southern 
dairy-farming area. Why? (Page 66.) 



84 THE BRITISH ISLES 

(iv) Cork imports salt and maize. For what 
purposes? 

(v) Add another export to that of butter from Cork 
and Waterford. 

There is but one important manufacturing area in Ireland, 
that of Belfast and its satellite towns. Linen is the main 
industry of these towns, with shipbuilding on Belfast Lough. 
The making of linen, as a cottage industry, has long been 
carried on in many parts of Ireland. The Belfast area has 
always been noted for it, for good flax has been grown in the 
valley of the Bann for centuries, and, further, it benefited 
by the skill of the Huguenot spinners who emigrated there 
at the end of the seventeenth century. Since the intro- 
duction of power-driven machines Belfast and the nearby 
towns have become the most important area in the world, 
producing about one- third of the linen of the world. Flax 
(Latin linum), a thin-stemmed plant, growing to a height of 
some two to three feet, must be pulled up, not cut, an 
operation still sometimes done by hand, although a machine 
has been invented to do it. It is then 'retted 5 in water for 
a week or ten days, and the suitability of the water for this 
purpose is obviously a main factor. The stalk is then dried, 
and the fibre separated from the woody part of the stem. 
All this is done before the flax is sent to the factories, which, 
however, to-day have to supplement local supplies with 
imports from the Baltic states, U.S.S.R., and Belgium. 
Belfast is one of the major shipbuilding areas of the British 
Isles, although not so great as those of the Clyde (Chapter V), 
or of north-east England (Chapter VIII). 

Question 4. (i) Belfast has not, like the Clyde, an 
iron and steel industry near by, and fuel and steel 
are imported from Cumberland and western Scotland. 
This is not a serious disadvantage. Why not? 

(ii) Shipbuilding is a man's job. Where do the 
women of Belfast work? 



IRELAND 85 

Other manufacturing centres in Ireland are Dublin, with 
the great Guinness brewery, the largest in the world, an 
industry based on a good water supply and locally grown 
barley ; Londonderry, a small port on Lough Foyle, making 
shirts and collars ; Cork, Waterford, Wexford, and Limerick, 
with bacon, ham, and butter. Ford cars and Fordson 
tractors are made just outside Cork. Falls on the Shannon 
near Limerick are used to generate electricity, which is 
now taken by the 'grid 5 to all parts of Eire. This may 
stimulate manufacture. 

Question 5. Dublin imports barley and hops. Why? 

Bogs make communications difficult in much of the Irish 
plain but, fortunately, there are some well-drained sandy or 
gravelly glacial deposits, lying roughly east and west, which 
have made railway construction easier. Note the railway 
from Dublin to Galway which, crossing well-drained land, 
makes for Athlone, a small market town situated where the 
Shannon valley, which is often marshy or boggy, may be 
easily crossed. The mountains of the south, despite their 
W.S.W.-E.N.E. grain, are crossed by the railway from 
Dublin to Cork through the Mallow gap. 

Question 6. The trade of Eire is almost entirely with 
Great Britain. The important exports are cattle 
(principally from Dublin to Liverpool), bacon, ham, 
butter, and beer; the imports are wheat, maize, coal, 
and manufactured goods. Explain the nature of the 
trade, and why it is so exclusively with Great Britain. 

Question 7. Why should Dublin be a more important 
port than Limerick? 

Qiiestion 8. Although agriculture is the chief industry 
in -Northern Ireland, as in Eire, farming produce is not 
exported to the same extent. Explain. 

Qiiestion g. Northern Ireland is about one-sixth the area 
of all Ireland, but has about one- third of all the people. 



86 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Explain. [Population: Eire, 3,000,000; Northern 
Ireland, 1,250,000.] 

Question 10. The suggestion has been made that 
Galway should be used as a passenger port for North 
America, i.e. that passengers should come from New 
York to London via Galway, Dublin, and Holyhead. 
What advantage would this give? [It may be pointed 
out that shipping companies with their offices already 
set up in other ports are not likely to agree to change 
their routes, and that much would have to be done to 
Galway to make it comparable with Southampton.] 

Question 11. Contrast the distribution of population 
in Ireland with that in Scotland. [Examine either 
diagram 66 or a map of distribution of population in 
an atlas. Note : (a) Scotland and Ireland are about the 
same size, but Scotland, with five million, has more 
people than Ireland ; (b) in Scotland the Central Low- 
lands are densely peopled (about three-quarters of the 
people in one-quarter of the area), whereas .the High- 
lands and Southern Uplands are thinly peopled; 
(c) in Ireland, boggy or upland areas are thinly peopled, 
but there is only one extensive densely peopled district, 
that around Belfast.] 

Examination Questions 

1. What geographical factors help to explain the im- 
portance of the export of linen textiles from Belfast, of live- 
stock from Dublin, and of dairy produce from Cork? Why 
is the major portion of the external trade of Ireland carried 
on with Great Britain? (Cambridge.) 

2. Describe the cattle-rearing and associated occupations 
of Ireland, noting how geographical factors have influenced 
them. (Cambridge.) * 

3. Briefly describe the physical features and climate of 



IRELAND 87 

Ireland, and show what importance these have had on (a) the 
use of the land, and (b) the distribution of population. 
(Oxford.) 

4. Describe and account for the distribution in either 
Scotland or Ireland of the following : (a) cattle, (b) sheep, 
(c) cereals. (Cambridge.) 

5. Describe the physical features, the climate, and the 
typical occupations of the people of two of the following areas : 
the Scottish Highlands, the central plain of Ireland, the 
Southern Uplands of Scotland. (London.) 

6. Give reasoned geographical accounts of two of the 
following: (a) iron and steel production in South Wales, 
(b) fishing on the east coast of Great Britain, (c) cattle 
rearing and dairying in Eire. (London.) 

7. Choose two of the major physical regions of Ireland 
which are dissimilar, and note the points of geographical 
contrast between them. (London.) 



CHAPTER VIII 

NORTHERN ENGLAND 

By northern England is meant the Pennines, the rich manu- 
facturing and farming areas which lie on their flanks, and 
the Lake District. The Pennine upland stretches for about 
150 miles from Tyne to Trent, and has a width of some 
20-40 miles. In Chapter I it was shown that the Pen- 
nines are an upward fold of rock layers, although, on the 
west, the edge of the Pennines is often marked by a fault ; 
the fault to the east of the Eden valley, with a steep slope 
from over 2,000 ft. down to about 800 ft., is one of the most 
impressive sights in England. The whole of the Pennines 
are remarkably smooth in outline. The highest part is in 
the north, with many summits over 2,000 ft., and some over 
3,000 ft., while in the centre it is much lower, with an 
average height of some 1 ,000 ft. In the south the hills rise 
again to the Peak, about 2,000 ft. high. It has been pointed 
out earlier that all this is above the level of cultivation, and 
thus the nature of the rock is more important than differences 
of height. Diagram 35 shows that north and south of the 
Aire is the sandstone known as millstone grit, because mill- 
stones were made from it, whereas elsewhere limestone pre- 
dominates. This is important. The limestone, because of 
its porous nature and varying solubility, often gives bare 
rock surfaces, steep -sided gorges, and caves, a type of 
scenery sometimes called ' karat,' from the name of an area 
in the north-west Balkans of similar character. Elsewhere 
it is covered with thin turf, and gives grassy moors, which 
are divided by stone walls into vast sheep pastures. The 
'grit' moors, on the other hand, often have sour soil, heather, 
and peat bogs, and are almost uninhabited. The streams, 
however, provide soft, lime-free water for the textile in- 

88 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 



8< 



dustries on both flanks, and a water supply for the dense 
town population in the manufacturing areas. An atlas will 
show that the Pennines are crossed by railways in many 




COAUFIE.LC5 



UPUAHD 

COAX. % CUMSE.RwU*»ND 

tyne. gap ty. s. Lancashire 

STAINMOR.E PASS 1v YORK,DE.R.SY & NOTTS 
AIRE. GAP ~V N. STAFFORDSHIRE. 

Diagram 35. Northern England 

places : the main routes are, from north to south, the Tyne, 
Stainmore, and Aire gaps (diagram 35). 

Cumbria. The Lake District and the nearby lowlands are 
often considered under the name Cumbria (diagram 36). 
The geological history is complicated, but it is sufficient to 
say that the area is a dome of old rocks once covered with 



THE BRITISH ISLES 




3AR.UHGTON 
TH ROUC H 
( 5TAINMOK.E. 
P/KSS 

A/ 



/ 




w.> 



U PLftND 

CO/M- It = IR.ON 0S.6. 
JO ,20 MUS. 




Diagram 36. Sketch-map: Cumbria 

newer sedimentary rocks, which have now been worn away, 
except at the outer edges. The old hard rock thus now 
protrudes through a series of skins of newer layers. The 
dome shape has resulted in rivers flowing outwards from 
Scafell, 'eight vallies ... like spokes from the nave of a 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 91 

wheel/ as Wordsworth expressed it (diagram 37). The 
lakes are long and narrow, with steep valley sides rising 
almost sheer from the water. Some are in rock basins, but 
others are due to the damming of the valleys by glacial 
drift. The upland area is the wettest in England, with rain- 



N. 










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D - DE.R.WE.NT Vn/AT£.R. 


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Diagram 37. The Radial Drainage of the Lake District 

falls reaching 150 inches per annum, and sheep rearing is 
the only possible farming occupation on the hills. Even so 
the sheep have to be brought down to the shelter of the 
valley farms in winter. In the narrow valleys some potatoes 
and swedes are grown, but the main occupation is the 
rearing of dairy cattle on the damp pastures, and their 
milk is sent to Liverpool from the southern valleys, and to 



92 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Newcastle from the northern. The Lake District is one of 
great beauty. Cascades tumble down the mountain sides ; 
and differences of rocks, slates, grit, volcanic material, and 
glacial drift give rise to diversity of upland scenery. There 
is the further contrast between the wildness of the hills and 
the rich green of the valleys. Naturally, the tourist industry 
is important. Despite its low height compared with moun- 
tain areas in other parts of the world, the Lake District 
affords fine sport even to good mountaineers. Small 
market towns, for example, Keswick, nestling in the valleys, 
are often holiday centres as well. But there are other ways 
in which man makes use of the Lake District. Slate is 
quarried, and the area is, like so many other highland 
regions of Britain, used as a source of water ; Manchester 
obtains its water supply from Thirlmere and Haweswater. 
Within recent years Government afforestation has been 
started on the lower slopes, not without opposition from 
people who hold that this destroys the rugged beauty. 
Some of the Lake District is under National Trust control, 
and many think that the whole of it should be conserved as 
a national park. 

But indeed Cumbria is a district of contrasts. Not only 
is there diversity in the Lake District itself, but there are 
contrasts between it and the Eden lowlands, and between 
both and the industrial area of the Cumberland coal-field. 

Qjiestion i. The nearby plains are naturally drier than 
the Lake District; for example, Whitehaven, 42 in. of 
rain per annum, but Carlisle only 32 in. per annum. 
Why is Carlisle drier than Whitehaven? 

Luckily the Eden valley has not only a small rainfall for 
the west of England, but also a good, well-drained soil, 
and thus arable farming, with oats, turnips, swedes, and 
potatoes, is carried on. Sheep are also reared. 

The Cumberland coal-field is small, and the hidden field 
is here under the sea, so that some of the galleries in the 








H. J. Smith 
THE LAKE DISTRICT. Wastwater, Cumberland 




Aero films 

AN INDUSTRIAL TOWN (Lancashire). The photograph shows 
the cotton mills and the tightly packed homes of the mill-workers 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 93 

coal-mines are as much as four miles from the coast. There 
is an iron and steel industry, for rich iron ore is near by, there 
is coal for power, and coke was easily obtained from the 
Durham field, for it is only recently that improved technique 
has allowed of the use of local coal. Local iron ore is now 
supplemented with imports from north Spain. 

Question 2. Give the name of one area supplied with 
Cumberland fuel and steel. (Chapter VII.) 

Barrow-in-Furness (in .Lancashire), the largest town in 
Cumbria, owes its importance to local supplies of rich iron 
ore, and, as in Cumberland, coke was easily obtained. The 
industry dates back only some seventy years, and the rise of 
the town may be compared with the mushroom growth of 
so many cities in western North America. Barrow is one 
of the major shipbuilding districts of the British Isles, for 
the stretch of water behind Walney Island is well sheltered. 

Carlisle, on a bluff overlooking the Eden, is the second 
largest town, and grew up as a stronghold against Scottish 
invasion. It has some small manufactures, biscuits, woollens, 
and engineering. The sketch-map shows the main railways 
converging on the town from the south. It will be noticed 
that no railway makes its way north and south across the 
Lake District, and the western line has a difficult journey, 
rising to nearly 1,000 ft., over Shap Fell. 

Question 3. Using diagram 36 and the map already 
drawn of the Southern Uplands, draw a sketch-map 
showing the routes converging on Carlisle. [Remember 
that there is a railway from Newcastle through the 
Tyne gap.] 

The West Pennine Plain. 

The plain to the west of the Pennines (diagram 38) is very 
thickly peopled, with a density between the Ribble and the 
Mersey unequalled in any other industrial region of Britain. 




R..VJ 



UPLAND 
COAL 
fi JO £0 MLS 



HOW TO BEGIN 
LM = PR. 




Diagram 38. Sketch-map: the West Pennine Plain 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 95 

It is to be expected that a lowland to the west, particularly 
one near great manufacturing areas, would be important 
for dairy cattle. North of the Ribble and south of the 
Mersey this is true, but between these two rivers is a tract 
of rich, deep, well-drained, loamy soils, where arable farm- 
ing is all-important, and where cattle are few. It is one of 
the great areas of the country for potatoes (diagram 24) and 
oats (diagram 21), and some wheat is also grown. Market 
gardening is, naturally, widespread. One other point may 
be added, the enormous number of chicken kept in the 
Ribble valley, and in the district between Preston and 
Lancaster. 

South Lancashire is the greatest area in the world for the 
manufacture of cotton, with about one-quarter of the spindles 
of the world. It has been stated in Chapter III that the 
making of woollen goods was a widespread domestic in- 
dustry, and was to be found in districts where wool and soft 
water were available. Soft water from the 'grit' areas and 
wool from Pennine sheep led to the growth of woollen 
manufacture on both flanks of the Pennines, in Lancashire 
on the west and Yorkshire on the east. Cotton, probably 
first introduced from the Levant in the thirteenth century, 
was used as an adulterant in wool, but when it was spun 
separately it was found that the damper atmosphere of the 
west was of advantage, for the fibre was not prone to snap. 
Thus, on the west, woollens were gradually ousted by cottons. 
It is inaccurate to suggest, as is often done, that the damp 
atmosphere is the cause of the cotton industry of Lancashire, 
for the area would not have manufactured cottons had 
there not been a former woollen trade. To-day the moisture 
of the air in factories can be regulated by humidifiers, ma- 
chines which spray water into the air. It is clear from what 
has been said that cotton was made in Lancashire before the 
Industrial Revolution; it was fortunate, from the point of 
view of the industry, that coal was near at hand when the 
steam engine was invented. 

*D 



96 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Question 4. The following is a rough division of the 
industry. The wetter ring of towns round Manchester, 
that is, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Oldham, Stockport, 
deal mainly with spinning, while the drier towns, 
Preston, Blackburn, Burnley, are concerned mainly with 
weaving. Explain why the southern group is the wetter. 
[Think of the direction of the rainy winds.] 

Manchester, sometimes called ' Cottonopolis,' is the com- 
mercial centre of the industry, the town where cotton is 
bought and sold, rather than where it is made, and this 
position has been strengthened since the opening of the 
Manchester Ship Canal in 1894. Important though cotton 
is, it is not the only manufacture, for engineering, parti- 
cularly textile machinery, is found in all the 'cotton 5 towns. 
It is somewhat ironic that this machinery, sold abroad as 
well as to local factories, is the main cause for the decline 
in Lancashire's exports. Thirty years ago India imported 
the colossal total of 3,000 million yards of cotton fabric 
goods every year, and nearly all of it was English. Before 
the war the import had dropped to one-quarter of this figure, 
and over one-half of that came from Japan ! Both India and 
Japan bought their machinery from Lancashire firms, and 
sent their young men to the technical schools of the great 
'cotton 5 towns to learn the trade. It may be added here 
■ that at Trafford Park, Manchester, are the, works of Metro- 
Vickers, the greatest centre of the electrical industry in 
the country. 

Further south, in the Weaver valley, lie beds of salt, some 
100 ft. thick, and situated 200-500 ft. below the surface. 
The salt is not mined, but is obtained by letting water into 
the beds and pumping up the brine. Salt is valuable not 
only for its use as a food, but because it forms the basis 
of chemical industries. North wich, Runcorn, and Widnes 
have great chemical works, and the bleaching products are 
of particular value to the cotton-manufacturing region to 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 97 

the north. The making of soap, at Widnes, Port Sunlight 
(near Birkenhead), and Warrington; of glass at St. Helens; 
and of artificial silk at Stockport, Manchester, and other 
'cotton' towns, may be considered as branches of the 
chemical industry. Soap is made from caustic soda, a 
product of chemical factories, and oils, such as whale, palm, 
olive, ground-nut, and coco-nut. These are placed in a 
tank, heated by steam forced into them from pipes which 
line the sides of the tank, and so changed into soap. 

Question 5. The great soap factory of Port Sunlight 
was built in 1888 on some fields at Birkenhead. Give 
the reasons why Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) started 
his factory here. [Think of (a) raw materials, (b) labour, 
(c) cost of factory, (d) communications.] 

Question 6. The raw materials of artificial silk are, 
either wood-pulp or short fibre cotton, and chemicals. 
Enormous quantities of soft water are necessary. Most 
of the artificial silk factories of the country are in Lan- 
cashire. Suggest reasons why this should be so. [It 
should be noted that there is a real silk industry in 
Macclesfield (Cheshire) and nearby towns.] 

One other industry must be added in this region, that of 
shipbuilding at Birkenhead. 

The north Staffordshire coal-field, that is*, the area round 
Stoke, is more commonly called the Potteries. Pottery was 
not easy to transport, and thus it was a widespread domestic 
industry, carried on wherever there was suitable clay and 
wood for firing. It is not easy to explain why the Stoke 
area has become the most important district in the British 
Isles, while most of the others have lost their trade. It is 
true that coal is found here, but it seems likely that the work 
of certain men, particularly the Wedgwoods, was really 
responsible for its present position. The Pottery area has 
gradually grown as the open clay quarries have been fol- 
lowed, until to-day it is a sprawling district some ten miles 



98 THE BRITISH ISLES 

long and two-thirds of a mile wide. Local clay is still used, 
but for finer work the materials are obtained elsewhere, for 
example, china clay from Cornwall and Devon (Chapter 
XIV), ball clay' rom Dorset, flints from Norfolk and Nor- 
mandy. The canal (Trent and Mersey) from the Mersey 
estuary to Stoke is used for the transport of some of these 
raw materials. Although it is correct to emphasize the 
pottery industry here, black-band ironstones are still worked, 
and there is iron and steel manufacture. 

The great port of the west Pennine plain is Liverpool, 
second only to London in the total volume of its trade and 
first in the British Isles and in the world if exports only are 
considered. It is not possible until other regions have been 
discussed to understand fully the work of this port, but some 
obvious imports and exports may be shown on the sketch- 
map, for example, food, raw cotton, oils coming in, and 
cotton goods going out. It will be clear that Liverpool 
shares the trade of the Midlands as well as of the Yorkshire, 
Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire coal-field to the east of 
the Pennines. The town has industries due to its greatness 
as a port, for example, milling, sugar refining, metal- 
smelting, especially of tin. 

Question 7. There is a large import of food into Liver- 
pool, not only from North America, for example, 
wheat and meat, but also from Ireland. What food is 
imported from Ireland? (Chapter VII.) 

Question 8. Liverpool has not always been the great 
port of this region, for until the middle of the eighteenth 
century Chester was the more important. Silting of 
the Dee was one of the causes of the decline of Chester 
and the rise of Liverpool. Examine the shapes of the 
two estuaries, and suggest why the Dee should have 
silted. 

The opening of the Manchester Ship Canal, already 
mentioned, added another seaport to the area. It might 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 99 

be thought that all the raw cotton would now come to Man- 
chester and not to Liverpool, and that cotton piece goods 
would be exported mainly through Manchester. Changes 
of this type, however, come but slowly, for there are many 
old-established firms in Liverpool dealing with cotton, and 
they have retained their trade. About twice as much raw 
cotton comes to Liverpool as comes to Manchester. 

The main L.M.S.R. line through Crewe, Warrington, 
Wigan (a coal-mining town), Preston (a small port as well 
as a 'cotton 5 town), and Lancaster (=Roman fort on river 
Lune) should be shown on the sketch-map. Crewe, in the 
Midland Gate between the Welsh hills and the Pennines, 
is an example of a town which owes its very existence to the 
railways, for a century ago there was not even a village here. 
Not only is it an important junction but, because of this, it 
has been made the site of railway workshops. 

Question g. From an atlas find the routes which 
converge on Crewe. 

The people of the west Pennine plain are fortunate in the 
choice open to them of holiday resorts. The upland districts 
of north Wales, of Lakeland, and of the Pennines are easily 
reached, and great seaside towns, such as Blackpool, have 
grown up on the coasts. Many people, too, go to the Isle 
of Man, which has not only good bathing, but fine hill walks 
as well. 

The East Pennine Plain, (i) The North-eastern Region. 

It has been said in Chapter III that the Northumberland- 
Durham coal-field (diagram 39) is known to be one of the 
earliest worked in the country. The coal was easy to mine, 
it was usually near rivers, and the average distance from 
pit to port was about ten miles. It is not surprising that 
sending ' sea-cole 5 to other parts of England developed early. 
Here indeed was born the idea, before the introduction of 
the steam engine, of wagons with flanged wheels on iron 



100 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



rails running downhill to the ports, and often by their weight 
pulling up empty wagons. The transport of coal by coasting 




Diagram 39. Sketch-map: North-eastern England 



steamer to other parts of the country still persists and, in 
addition, about one-third of the coal is exported, principally 
across the North Sea to Scandinavia. Changes have oc- 
curred recently in the mining of this field. Some of the 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 101 

best seams in the older pits are nearly worked out, and new 
pits are being sunk in the south-eastern ' hidden ' part of the 
field (diagram 16). As in Cumberland, there are workings 
underneath the sea up to about four miles from the coast. 

Black-band ironstones stimulated an iron and steel in- 
dustry on the coal-field, but this is concentrated to-day at 
Middlesbrough, which, with Cleveland iron ore and Dur- 
ham coke and limestone, had obvious advantages. The town 
has grown rapidly, for a hundred years ago it was but a 
village, while to-day it has a population of 140,000. Its 
manufactures are mainly of heavy goods, such as rails and 
girders; Swedish iron ore now matters more than local 
supplies. 

Question 10. Two of the British coal-fields are pre- 
eminent for the export of coal. The Northumberland- 
Durham field is one, which is the other? (Chapter VI.) 

Question 11. The great industry on the Northumber- 
land-Durham coal-field is shipbuilding, and the area 
rivals the Clyde. From what has been said what type 
of ship was probably first made? 

Ships are made on the sheltered estuaries of the Tyne, 
Wear, and Tees, and at Hartlepool. The Tyne, with New- 
castle, South Shields, and others, is the greatest of these 
districts. Sunderland, on the Wear, a river with a rocky 
bed, which could not be dredged, concentrates on smaller 
ships, colliers and tramps. Marine engineering, as on the 
Clyde, has become a valuable adjunct of the shipbuilding 
trade. Although it is accurate to stress here the importance 
of shipbuilding and allied trades, other iron and steel pro- 
ducts are also made. Railway locomotives and rails 
are manufactured mainly on Tyneside and, at Tees- 
mouth, as mentioned above, girders for bridges and 
buildings ; the steelwork of the famous Sydney Bridge came 
from here. 

There are deposits of salt in the Tees valley, and a large 



102 THE BRITISH ISLES 

I.C.I. (Imperial Chemical Industries) factory at Billingham, 
near Stockton. Here also is a huge plant for the manu- 
facture of oil from coal, a process which may help, in the 
future, to absorb the coal now that the export trade is of 
less account (see page 73). 

As might be expected, the bulk of the people in this north- 
eastern region are to be found concentrated round the 
estuaries, and the coastal strips adjoining them. 

Newcastle, in spite of its name, is an old town. The 
adjective 'new 5 was given to it by the Normans, who built 
a castle on the site that the Romans had used a thousand 
years earlier. At Wallsend near Newcastle was the end of 
Hadrian's wall, built across England by the Romans to keep 
out the Scots. To-day Newcastle, roughly in the centre of 
the coal area, is a port, a manufacturing town, and the 
lowest bridge point on the Tyne. It is also at the junction 
of the important route to Scotland, east of the Pennines, and 
that from Carlisle through the Tyne gap. 

Question 12. The east coast route to Scotland was, 
until the coming of the railways, far more important 
than that to the west of the Pennines. Why? 

Durham, in a great curve of the Wear, and some seventy 
feet above the river, was first settled by monks during the 
period of Viking raids. Surrounded on three sides by water, 
it was difficult of access, but its advantage then has become 
a disadvantage in modern times, particularly as the Wear 
cannot be dredged, and it is to-day but a small cathedral 
and university town. 

There are no special features in the farming to which it is 
necessary to call attention. It is an area of mixed farming, 
with oats, wheat, potatoes, and turnips as the chief crops, 
and where sheep, cattle, and pigs are reared. It is of 
interest that the Tees valley is the original home of the Short- 
horn, the most famous British breed of cattle, which was 
developed here about 1780. 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 



103 



The East Pennine Plain, (ii) The Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and 
Nottinghamshire Coal-field. 
The extent of the coal-mining area of the York, Derby, 




ZO MUS. 



MOW TO &E.G4N H. 
I S. OF PCNKIIMCS cf.WASH 
iiA.lB.6. -S.Of PE.NNINE.SfxV] 
■ PENNINE.5 - WA^SH (YZ) 



Diagram 40. Sketch-map: the Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and 
Nottinghamshire Coal-field 

and Nottingham field is shown on diagram 40; diagram 16 
shows the concealed or hidden part of the field and, within 
recent years, it is this that has come into prominence. It 
is possible to divide the manufacturing areas of this great 



1 04 THE BRITISH ISLES 

field into three. To the north, round Leeds, Bradford, 
Halifax, Huddersfield, Dewsbury, and other smaller towns, 
lies the greatest woollen manufacturing district of the world. 
It has been stated earlier that the industry is old, for it had 
the wool and soft water necessary, although in its early days 
it was not the greatest area of the country. To-day most of 
the wool is imported, principally from Australia, for local 
supplies have been outgrown. There is not the specializa- 
tion in either spinning or weaving which was mentioned 
in the discussion of the Lancashire cotton towns, although 
there is some specialization in the type of woollen goods 
made. The most important town is Bradford ; Huddersfield 
is famed for its high-class cloth ; Halifax is noted for carpets ; 
while Dewsbury and towns near by specialize in the manu- 
facture of cloth from * shoddy ' (shoddy is wool derived from 
rags, i.e. the wool has been used before). Leeds is the 
greatest town of the region — note its foothill position at the 
entrance of the Aire gap — but it is not now a principal 
centre for woollens. Ready-made clothing and engineering 
both employ more workers than woollens do. As in Lan- 
cashire, textile machinery is made in all the towns mentioned, 
in fact, the towns of the cotton area to the west of the 
Pennines and those of the woollen district to the east form 
one of the great engineering provinces of the country. 

The second division of this great field is the district round 
Sheffield. Here again the industry is old, for the manu- 
facture of iron and steel goods from local iron ore smelted 
with charcoal goes back to the twelfth century. Chaucer, 
in the Reeve's Tale, mentions that Symkyn the miller carried 
a Sheffield knife. The nearby millstone grit, suitable for 
grindstones, may explain the importance of cutlery and edge 
tools generally. To-day the work may be divided into two 
classes: (a) cutlery and other small articles, such as tools 
and clock springs; (b) heavy steel trades, including ma- 
chinery, armour-plating, and guns. There is one common 
factor in these seemingly dissimilar sides to the trade — 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 105 

a specialization on the finest type of goods ; and, indeed, the 
newer type steels, for example, stainless, which are now 
made, illustrate the same idea. The fine quality iron and 
steel, necessary for so much of the work of Sheffield, is 
imported from abroad, principally from Sweden. 

Question 13. Sheffield has, to-day, no local iron ore, 
and is farther from the sea than most British coal-fields. 
These are the causes of her specialization. Explain 
more fully. [The answer, if forgotten, is in Chapter V, 
on the Southern Uplands of Scotland.] 

Rotherham, with blast furnaces and steel mills, and Don- 
caster, with engineering works, may be thought of as part 
of this central zone of the coal-field. 

It may be added here that the industrial districts of south 
Yorkshire, that is, of the area round Leeds and Bradford, 
and that round Sheffield, lie in the part of the county known 
as the West Riding. (Riding =third part; the other two 
are the North Riding and the East Riding.) 

There is not the same specialization in the southern part 
of the coal-field; the towns have many manufactures. 
Nottingham has been famous for lace, which was a cottage 
industry as far back as the sixteenth century, but to-day lace 
is of small importance, and its place has been taken by other 
varieties of knitted goods, pullovers, socks, and stockings. 
In the Middle Ages smiths worked local ores with Sherwood 
charcoal, and thus laid the foundation of the modern manu- 
facture of cycle and motor machinery. In Nottingham, too, 
are the great factories of Player (tobacco) and Boot (medi- 
cines) ; Derby is famous for Rolls-Royce cars and aeroplane 
engines and for pottery, and it is the site of a L.M.S. railway 
workshop. 

Question 14. Suggest reasons why Derby was chosen 
as the site of a railway works. 

The fact that 90 per cent of the iron-ore production of the 
British Isles is in the line of limestone hills has already been 



106 THE BRITISH ISLES 

stated, and two important centres in the area under dis- 
cussion, Scunthorpe and Frodingham, have been marked on 
the sketch-map. These make pig-iron, which is sent to 
Yorkshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, and even Scotland. 

The position of Hull and Grimsby as the two greatest 
fishing ports of the country has been emphasized in Chapter 
I. Fish, when brought in by British ships, do not rank as 
an import, so that ordinary trade figures do not show fully 
the importance of these towns. The other trade of the 
Humber is shared mainly by Hull, Grimsby, and Goole, 
with Hull as the greatest. Grimsby and Goole export coal 
and import timber, largely pit-props, but Hull has a much 
more general trade. It imports butter, bacon, timber, and 
oil-seeds, the last a relic of the days when it was a whaling 
port, and dealt in whale oil. It might seem obvious to add 
wool to the list, but it will be explained later in Chapter XVI 
that, although Hull does import wool, the bulk comes by 
coasting steamer from London, the greatest wool-importing 
port of the British Isles. It should be easy to understand 
that Hull will not only export the goods of the nearby 
industrial districts, but that products from Lancashire or 
the Midlands, if destined for north-west Europe, are usually 
exported through Hull as well. 

Question 75. (i) What are the countries of origin of 
the butter, bacon, and timber? (See Chapter V if 
answer not known.) 

(ii) Give another example of an important raw 
material coming to a manufacturing district via 
London. (See Chapter VI.) 

The main L.M.S.R. and L.N.E.R. lines should be shown 
on the sketch-map ; they are easily found from an atlas, or 
may be copied from diagram 64. The trans-Pennine line 
from Derby to Manchester using the valley of the Derwent 
has been shown. Canals and canalized rivers are used here 
more than in other parts of Great Britain and Ireland. 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 



107 



Examples are the Aire and Calder to Leeds and Wakefield, 
and the Don to Sheffield, but the cross-Pennine canals with 
long tunnels and many locks are little used (diagram 43). 
It is bulky goods that are carried by water, such as coal 
outwards and grain and timber in. 

A Regional Division of Yorkshire, 

Yorkshire, the largest county in Britain, has within its 




Diagram 41. Yorkshire: the Main Regions 

boundary part of the lowland of south-east England, part 
of the highland zone of Great Britain, and a great industrial 
area. Thus in one county is to be found an epitome of 
Britain, and it has been chosen as an example of the way 
any district may be divided into regions (diagram 41). 



io8 • THE BRITISH ISLES 

i. The York Moors or Cleveland Hills. This is a thinly 
peopled, heather-covered moorland, with some sheep and 
cattle. Much rises to over 1,500 ft. Middlesbrough and 
the nearby iron mines form the only important district. 

2. The York Wolds. These hills are of chalk, and make steep 
cliffs at Flamborough Head. They are lower than the hills 
to the north, and are cultivated on the 'sheep and corn' 
system described in Chapter IV. 

3. The Pennines. A general description of the Pennine 
upland was given at the beginning of this chapter, and 
diagram 35 shows that it is possible to make subdivisions. 
The Pennine tributaries of the Ouse flow in steep-sided 
valleys called ' dales.' Here sheep and beef cattle are reared, 
for the land is mainly under grass. Market towns are to be 
found at the foot of the dales, and here the beef cattle are 
bought by lowland farmers to be fattened on their richer 
pasture. 

4. The Vale of York. Yorkshire is often called the ' county 
of broad acres,' and it is the vale of York which is thought of 
when this term is used. As a whole this pleasant rolling 
plain, with much morainic material, is a fertile agricultural 
region. Some is low-lying, and, although drained, is still 
liable to flood. The Northallerton Gate, the northern exit 
of the vale between the Pennines and the Cleveland Hills, 
is only ten miles wide. It is not necessary for most purposes 
to make any subdivision of this plain and none has been 
shown on the map. However, there are differences. In the 
north, that is, around Northallerton, the soil is heavy clay ; 
wheat and roots are grown, and bullocks and some dairy 
cows reared. Further south the soil is lighter and, in 
general, gives not only good cereals, but also such crops as 
potatoes, carrots, and beet. The light land also suits pigs 
and poultry. A third division may be made. Along the 
banks of the lower Ouse and Derwent, where the rivers are 
tidal, their flooding has left a rich deposit of alluvium on 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 109 

which wheat, oats, potatoes, sugar-beet, flax, and vegetables 
give heavy crops. So rich is this area that land elsewhere is 
artificially flooded so as to gain fertility from the river mud. 
The population of the vale of York is almost entirely agri- 
cultural, and it is a land of villages and small market towns 
whose positions have been chosen in the past with an eye to 
the possibility of flooding. The largest town is York. It is 
on high ground, above flood level, and was, in the Middle 
Ages, accessible to small sea-going vessels. The Ouse at 
York breaks through a low, roughly east-to-west moraine 
only about fifty feet high, which made and still makes a 
good east-to-west route. The Romans, who had a soldier's 
eye for a good position, made York their northern military 
capital, for it was within reach of their northern frontier : it 
still is an important army depot. Later the town became 
an ecclesiastical centre and, until the Industrial Revolution, 
was the chief town of northern England. To-day York is 
not only a market town and shopping centre for the plain, 
but is a tourist centre as well. It has some manufactures, 
for example, chocolate, but it is difficult to find any satis- 
factory geographical explanation for their presence. 

5. The Vale of Pickering. The centre of this vale is an old 
glacial lake bed, and is still ill-drained and liable to winter 
floods. 

Question 16. The centre is mainly meadow-land with 
cattle, while there is a ring of arable land growing 
cereals and animal fodder crops. The main villages 
form a rough circle. Nearly all the roads and railways 
do not cross the centre. Explain. 

6. Holdemess. This is, on the whole, a highly cultivated 
region, with wheat and barley, but some tracts of ill-drained 
land are given over to bullock-feeding. 

7. The Industrial Region. This has already been discussed 
and it is clear that subdivisions could be made if necessary. 



no THE BRITISH ISLES 

Examination Questions 

i . (a) On the outline map of north England and south 
Scotland provided : 

(i) Shade in pencil and name Cheviots, Sidlaw Hills, 
Yorkshire Moors. 

(ii) Insert and name the rivers Clyde, Eden, Tees, Tweed. 

(iii) Mark in ink and name the Northumberland and 
Durham coal-field, and the Cumberland coal-field. 

(iv) Mark areas important for dairy cattle (D), fruit (F), 
potatoes (P), salt (S), wheat (W). Use the letters to indicate 
the areas, one area for each. 

(v) Mark with a dot and name Barrow-in-Furness, 
Carlisle, Stranraer, also one seaport on the Firth of Forth, 
one on the Tyne, and one on the Humber. 

(b) Write a brief account of the trade of one of the three 
eastern ports marked. (Cambridge.) 

2. What geographical factors have contributed to the 
development of important textile industries in south Lan- 
cashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire? Draw a sketch- 
map giving details of one of these textile areas. (Cambridge.) 

3. Draw a sketch-map to illustrate the position of the 
coal-fields either east of the Pennines or west of the Pennines. 
Select one of the coal-fields shown, and briefly describe the 
industries associated with it. (Cambridge.) 

4. Draw a large sketch-map of the coal-field of either 
Northumberland or south Lancashire, inserting four towns 
on the coal-field. Select two dissimilar industries of the 
region, describe where they are and the factors contributing 
to their development. (Cambridge.) 

5. Examine the following figures and explain the 

differences. 

Density of population 

per sq. mile 

The Eden valley . . . 250 

The Pennines .... less than 1 

The north-east coast of England . over 500 (Oxford.) 



NORTHERN ENGLAND 1 1 1 

6. Locate four coal-fields adjoining or near to the Pennines 
and give a reasoned account of the industrial development 
of one of them. (London.) 

7. Draw a large sketch-map of north-east England (east 
of the Pennine watershed and north of a line through the 
Humber) indicating and naming: 

(a) The Pennines, Cleveland Hills, and the Yorkshire 
Wolds. 

(b) The rivers Tyne, Tees, Ouse, and Aire. 

(c) One coal-field and one iron-mining district. 

(d) One shipbuilding centre and one woollen manu- 
facturing district. 

(e) The main L.N.E.R. line to Scotland and three im- 
portant towns on it. (London.) 

8. Suggest a regional division of Yorkshire and state 
briefly the chief distinguishing characteristics of each 
division. (London.) 

9. Draw a sketch-map of the area which drains into the 
Humber estuary, indicating and naming: 

(a) The main relief features. 

(b) The rivers Aire, Don, and Trent. 

(c) The chief coal-fields. 

(d) One important steel manufacturing and one pottery 
manufacturing area. 

(e) Hull, Nottingham, Bradford, York. (London.) 

10. Compare the Northumberland coal-field with the 
South Wales coal-field with regard to (a) position, (b) in- 
dustrial activities, (c) export trade. (N.U.J.B.) 

1 1 . Name the principal industries in each of the towns : 
Belfast, Dundee, and Sheffield. Describe the ways in 
which two of the principal industries in each town have been 
favoured by local conditions. (C.W.B.) 



CHAPTER IX 

THE MIDLANDS 

The Midlands, or the Midland Triangle, is the area bounded 
on the north by the Pennines, on the east by the limestone 
hills, and on the west by the Welsh Massif (diagram 42). 
Three main streams drain the region, Trent, Severn, and 
Avon. An atlas will show that low hills rise above the 
general level of the plain ; these, which include the coal- 
fields, are areas of harder rock which have resisted weather- 
ing. The greatest town is Birmingham. It grew up as a 
market town in a farming district, and in it, using local iron 
ore and charcoal from nearby Cannock Chase, were made 
bits, nails, horse-shoes, and farm implements. Its smiths 
are mentioned as early as 1538, and in 1607 'Bremicham' 
was described by the author Camden as swarming with 
inhabitants and echoing with the noise of anvils. When 
the smelting of iron by coal was introduced in the middle 
of the eighteenth century the coal-field to the west, for 
Birmingham is not on the field, had coal and iron in the 
same measures, and limestone near at hand. It was this 
district, round Walsall, Wednesbury, West Bromwich, and 
Dudley, which became known as the 'Black Country.' 
'At night it is lurid with the flames of iron-furnaces; by 
day it appears one vast loosely knit town of humble homes 
amid cinder-heaps and fields stripped of vegetation by 
smoke and fumes' (Mackinder). But this description 
which explains how the name 'Black Country' arose is not 
true to-day; the iron ore is hardly worked, coal is now 
principally mined in the northern 'hidden' part of the 
field, and but few blast-furnaces are at work. The iron 
used to-day comes from the limestone hills, mainly from the 
area round Corby, Wellingborough, and Kettering shown on 

112 



THE MIDLANDS 



"3 



the map, and the steel from South Wales and Sheffield. In 
discussing South Wales it was pointed out how the list of 
metals smelted or refined in the Swansea neighbourhood 




Diagram 42. Sketch-map: the Midlands 

has increased or, in other words, how a district already 
famous attracts other industries of the same type, lne 
same feature is to be seen here. The making of brass was 
developed in Birmingham early in the seventeenth century, 



1 1 4 THE BRITISH ISLES 

for it had a thriving iron and steel industry. Since then 
bronze, gold, silver, electro-plating, and, recently, alumi- 
nium have been added. To-day Birmingham, Dudley, 
Wolverhampton, and Walsall are hardly separate towns at 
all, for they are linked by strings of houses. 

Question i. (i) Birmingham, not on the coal-field, 
was already specializing in small valuable articles at 
the time when the heavy iron industry was in the 
Black Country. Why? 

(ii) The whole region of Birmingham and the old 
Black Country concentrates to-day on articles where 
the cost of the raw material is but a small proportion 
of their final value : cars, cycles, electrical apparatus, 
wireless sets, jewellery, brass- work, nails, screws, tyres. 
Why has the old Black Country also developed in this 
• way? [Think of (a) raw materials necessary, (b) dis- 
tance of coal-field from sea.] 

Diagram 42 show that coal is mined in other parts of the 
Midland plain, and these smaller fields have helped in the 
rise of manufactures in certain towns. The small Shrop- 
shire field, west of that of south Staffordshire, and bordering 
the Welsh hills, has been omitted from the map, for, although 
it was, at one time, a minor Black Country, it is now of small 
account. It was the first area to use coal smelting of iron 
ore and one town name, Ironbridge, commemorates the first 
iron bridge ever built, that over the Severn in 1779. On 
the East Warwick field coal is mined near Nuneaton and 
Tamworth, but it is largely sent away for domestic use. 
The largest town of the area is Coventry, once famous for 
silk, then for machinery for silks, and now for motor cars and 
artificial silk. In the Leicestershire coal-field, Ashby and 
Coalville are mining centres, but the biggest town of the 
neighbourhood, Leicester, is not on the field. Leicester, 
whose wool was rated highly for hosiery as far back as the 
thirteenth century, has retained its importance for this 



THE MIDLANDS 115 

trade, although silk and artificial silk hosiery and, indeed, 
knitted goods generally have been added. Boots and shoes, 
with leather from local cattle, are also made. Rugby 
makes electrical apparatus, but it is difficult to find any 
geographical reason for the location of the industry here. 
Burton-on-Trent is famous for beer, in fact, Burton is the 
name of a variety of beer. The presence of gypsum in the 
local water makes it peculiarly suitable for brewing, so much 
so that in other towns where beer is made gypsum is often 
added to the water, a process to which the ugly name 
' burtonization ' has been applied. 

Question 2. The soils of the Midland Triangle are very 
varied, but milk production and market gardening are 
widespread. Explain. 

On areas of lighter soil, where dairying and market 
gardening cannot be successfully practised, for example, in 
eastern Shropshire, wheat, barley, and roots are grown. 
Some special districts may be added to this broad outline. 
Fattening pastures for beef cattle are found in the Soar 
valley, in the plain of Hereford and adjacent tracts in the 
Severn valley, and to the south of Warwick. In the last of 
these milk production is now taking precedence over that of 
beef. The plain of Hereford is famous too for cider and 
perry, and is the only district, outside the south-eastern 
counties, where hops are an important crop. The fertile 
Vale of Evesham, that is, the part of the Avon valley round 
that town, is rich in orchards, particularly of plum. Vege- 
tables are often grown in the orchards between the lines of 
fruit trees. 

Question 3. 

Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief, 
Taffy came to my house, and stole a leg of beef. 

This is an English saying : explain Taffy's temptation. 

Birmingham is almost equidistant from the estuaries of 

Humber, Mersey, Thames, and Severn, and thus the ports of 



u6 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



Hull, Liverpool, London, and Bristol all compete for ' Black 
Country' trade. This industrial area is farther from the 
sea than other British manufacturing districts, and thus 
water transport is more used here than elsewhere : diagram 
43 shows the main canals. 




R.IVE.R.S 



•*-*- CANAUS 



^50 MWS. 



Diagram 43. The Main Canals and Navigable Rivers of England 
(Canals which are not much used are omitted) 

Main line railways should be shown on the sketch-map, 
at least the G.W.R. (from Paddington) through Warwick, 
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, and out of the 
map to Chester; and the L.M.S.R. (from Euston) through 
Rugby, Stafford, and Crewe (the L.M.S.R. also has a route 
from Rugby through Coventry, Birmingham, and Wolver- 
hampton, rejoining the main line at Stafford). 

Question 4. Birmingham has a very good service of 
trains. What reason is there for this? 



THE MIDLANDS 117 

It will be noted that Bristol and not Gloucester has been 
named above as the port of the Severn. The upper estuary 
of the Severn is shallow and impeded with sandbanks, and 
although Gloucester was the rival of Bristol when ships were 
smaller, it is so no longer. Gloucester is a market centre, 
and has some manufactures, for example, tanning and iron, 
whose roots are old. It is the lowest road crossing of the 
river, but not now the lowest rail crossing. 

Examination Questions 

1 . Show by means of a sketch-map the names and positions 
of either (a) the Midland coal-fields of England, or (b) the 
coal-fields of the Scottish Lowlands. Describe and account 
for the chief industrial activities of the people on one of the 
coal-fields shown on your map. (Cambridge.) 

2. Account for the importance of three of the following 
towns: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Cardiff, Dundee, 
Belfast. (Bristol.) 

3. Describe the general relief, the drainage system, and 
the chief manufacturing industries of the Midlands of 
England (bounded by the Welsh mountains, the Pennines, 
and the Jurassic escarpments). (London.) 



CHAPTER X 

THE SCARPLANDS 

In Chapter I a broad division of Great Britain was made 
between the highland region of the north-west and the low- 
land zone of the south-east. This lowland is not a flat 
monotonous plain, for it is crossed by low hills. An earlier 
diagram (No. 4) marked the chalk and limestone area of 
this lowland, but it has been thought better on diagram 44 
to show the chalk and Jurassic layers. The latter, so named 
from a similar rock formation in the Jura mountains of 
Europe, are made up of sandstones and clays as well as 
limestones. The author has found intelligent boys puzzled 
by the existence of a woollen industry in the Cotswolds be- 
cause they thought of these hills as limestone only, that is, as 
an area of hard water. * The truth is that the water used 
comes from sandy layers. The chalk, limestone, and some 
of the sandstones, although not hard, have not been worn 
away as easily as the clay, and this is the reason why they 
stand up as hills. South-east England was slightly tilted by 
earth movements during the Alpine period of mountain 
building (diagram 2), and this has brought about the steep 
scarp slope, usually on the west or north-west, and the more 
gentle or dip-slope on the opposite side (diagram 45). It 
will be seen from diagram 44 that the scarps of the North 
and South Downs face inwards, that is, they are exceptions 
to the general statement just made. The explanation of 
this will be given later. Because of this scarp feature the 
area under discussion is sometimes called the Scarplands of 
England. The lines of hills are not continuous. North of 
the Cotswolds, for example, the hills are low and the scarp 
often absent, and north of the Chilterns the chalk broadens 
out into a low plateau, often covered with glacial deposits, 
which is indeed higher than the Fens to the west, but which 

118 



THE SCARPLANDS Iig 

does not show a scarp slope. Further north the chalk is 
broken by the Wash and the Humber. 




Diagram 44. The Scarplands 

Diagram 44 shows the scarps, and the slope is often steep, 
as in the Cotswolds, the Chilterns, and parts of the North 
and South Downs. From the crest of the Chilterns, for 

E 



iso THE BRITISH ISLES 

example, on a clear day, a magnificent view looking west- 
wards may be had. The chalk hills drop steeply at one's 
feet, and faintly in the distance across the clay vale may be 
seen, some forty miles away, the rise of the Cotswolds. 

The clay is impervious, but water sinks easily through 
the porous chalk or limestone, and the section shows that 
water will come to the surface as a spring where the porous 



N.W. S.&.. 




S = SPRJNG 



Diagram 45. Section across the Scarplands showing the Alternation 
of Ridges and Clay Vales 

rocks rest on the non-porous. This is the explanation of 
the 'spring-line' villages so often found on both flanks of 
the hills. It has already been pointed out that big towns 
to-day may get their water from distant hills, but early 
peoples did not settle in a district unless their water supply 
was assured. 

Question 1. Where do Manchester, Liverpool, Bir- 
mingham, and Bradford obtain their water? (Chapters 
VI and VIII.) 

An additional attraction to the early settler of the spring- 
line villages was that the soil was mixed, for rain had washed 
down the limestone or chalk on to the clay. This soil was 
not so light and poor as the limestone or chalk, but was 
easier to work than the heavy clay. It was also pointed out 
in Chapter I that movement along the hills was easier than, 
over the densely forested lowlands. It may be added that 
farms to-day often include in their area meadows on the 



THE SCARPLANDS 121 

damp clay, arable fields on the mixed soil, and downland 
above. 

Detail of the farming in the scarplands will be given later 
in the individual chapters, and a broad statement will be 
sufficient here. Between the two main lines of hills the land 
is often of heavy clay well suited to cattle pastures, and arable 
farming is only important where the soils are lighter. The 
G.W.R., which serves a part of this clay vale, is often called 
the 'Milky Way. 5 East Anglia, that is, roughly the counties 
of Norfolk and Suffolk, and a part of Essex, has not this 
heavy clay soil, for it has been said already that much of it 
is a low chalk plateau masked by chalky boulder clay ; here 
arable farming is supreme. 

Question 2. (i) On the hills ' sheep and corn ' farming, 
or some modification, is usually practised. What does 
this mean? (Chapter IV.) 

(ii) What is used in the making of cement? (Chapter 

in.) 

(hi) What stone was used in the building of St. Paul's 
Cathedral. (Chapter III.) 

(iv) What are the main areas for iron ore in the line 
of limestone hills? (Chapters III, VIII, and IX.) 

It will be clear that subdivisions of the scarplands may be 
made: these .are the region in the south-east within the 
horse-shoe of the North and South Downs, the London 
Basin inside the V of North Downs and Chilterns, the 
Hampshire Basin, and the clay vale and East Anglia already 
mentioned. These will now be considered. 



CHAPTER XI 

east anglia: the fens 

The area shown on diagram 46 is one of farming villages 
and small market towns. Coal is absent and the main 
emphasis of the chapter is on farming, not on manufacture. 
There is no high land, but on the sketch-map the chalk and 
limestone scarps have been shown, and the clay vale which 
lies between. The scarps are sometimes very faint, for 
example, to the east of the Fens. In Huntingdonshire, 
south Cambridgeshire, and Bedfordshire the clay vale is 
covered with chalky boulder clay, and is under arable 
farming and market gardening rather than grass. In Bed- 
fordshire, along the banks' of the Ouse, there is an area of 
fertile, deep, easily worked soils, well known for market 
gardening, with potatoes, sprouts, cauliflower, peas, beans, 
onions, and lettuce. 

Question 1. Suggest the likely places of sale of the 
produce of this rich market-gardening area. 

It has already been mentioned that East Anglia, that is, 
the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and a part of Essex, has 
been covered with glacial drift too. Low chalk cliffs are, 
however, to be seen at Hunstanton. East Anglia is mainly 
low plateau country, and, in olden days, it was isolated 
by sea to north and east, by fen to the west, and by Essex 
forest to the south. Even to-day this isolation has not 
entirely disappeared, for no route from outside passes 
through East Anglia to another part of England. This area 
also is under arable farming, with wheat, barley, oats, sugar- 
beet, and other roots (Chapter IV). About three-quarters 
of the sugar-beet of the country is grown here. It may be 
added that barley is usually grown on the lighter, sandier 

122 



EAST ANGLIA: THE FENS 



123 



soils, and wheat on heavier, richer land. There has been 
some flax-growing in recent years. The harvest is a little 
earlier than those of wheat and barley so that the crop seems 



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ElxHe. 


FLNS 


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SCALPS 


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,o 


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. • j * *. '•/■ KJL H 


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FATTENING 1 
PASTORS y 


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THE CUAY 



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ha* 



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Diagram 46. Sketch-map: the Fens, East Anglia 
(The scarps would be better shown in pencil, coloured for choice, and not 

as above) 

a suitable addition to the rotation. Farmers have, how- 
ever, found one disadvantage, that flax when ripe is easily 
beaten down by rain, and that when this happens, hand- 
pulling may frave to be used. Not only is this expensive, 
but it takes time, and the farmer may find that his men are 



124 THE BRITISH ISLES 

still working on the flax when he wants them for wheat and 
barley harvests. It is thus difficult to say what the future 
of flax will be. 

Question 2. Sheep and cattle are also reared. Write 
a short account of this. (Chapter IV.) 

Some special areas must now be described. 

The Fens. After the Ice Age the Wash must have been 
much bigger than it is to-day, with a number of small islands 
rising above the sea. Then gradually changes took place. 
The currents of the North Sea, with their speed decreased 
in the sheltered waters of the Wash, dropped their mud 
and the level of this mud slowly rose until it was only 
covered at high tide. The rivers, too, flowing through, 
added their silt whenever they flooded. Thus to-day silt is 
found around the coast stretching inland for some ten to 
fifteen miles. Between these mud banks and the firm land 
was swamp, covered with reeds and shallow ponds, over 
which the rivers often overflowed. The reeds died and 
decayed, and others grew, so that a layer, varying in thick- 
ness from a few inches to many feet, of black, spongy, peaty 
earth was formed. 

The fertility of the coastal silt was early realized and, 
before the time of the Romans, parts were certainly culti- 
vated. The Romans continued this drainage, but after 
they left their work seems to have been allowed to go to 
ruin. The fenland still remained as the home of fish and 
waterfowl, but of few people, although, on some of the 
islands, for example, Ely and Wisbech (pronounced Wiz- 
beech), there were settlements. Ely, which means eel 
district, was founded by monks, for here they hoped to be 
able to practise their religion in peace and security. It 
was not until the seventeenth century that reclamation was 
started on a large scale, and to-day the Fen country is 
the most fertile and most highly farmed land in England. 
Reclamation was not easy. The rivers have had to be em- 



EAST ANGLIA: THE FENS 125 

banked, for they are above the level of the surrounding 
land, and water from drainage ditches is pumped into them. 
This was done at first by pumps worked by hand or by 
horse, then windmills were used, as in the Netherlands, but 
now steam and petrol pumps do the work. The rivers were 
not straight, and great drainage canals were built to take 
the water quickly to the sea. The rivers have sluice gates 
at their mouths, which will only open outwards, that is, 
when the tide comes in the gates shut and prevent the sea 
water from coming up the river. There are still difficulties 
in the Fens, especially if the rivers happen to be high at a 
time when there are spring tides and a strong east wind. 

To a visitor from another part of Britain the Fenland 
scene is a curious one. Fields are divided not by hedges or 
walls, but by drainage canals, and the roads, often running 
alongside the embankment of a drainage canal, may go 
straight for miles on end. The land is very flat and, to 
many, uninteresting, but, on a summer afternoon, the 
Fens, because of the unbroken sky line, give magnificent 
cloud effects. Villages are usually on patches of higher 
ground, and thus some views of the Fens suggest a curiously 
uninhabited countryside, whereas elsewhere there may be a 
long line of villages. The cropping of the land is unusual 
and the average farmer is really more a large-scale market 
gardener than a farmer. Potatoes cover about one-third of 
all the land, and although more important on the silt than 
in the fen, they are everywhere a major crop. Other crops 
are wheat, sugar-beet, and vegetables. The drainage 
canals are often used to transport the sugar-beet to the 
factories. Some districts of lighter soils, usually in the silt, 
are famous for fruit, as at Wisbech, and bulbs, as at Spalding. 
Crop yields are high on the fertile land of the Fens ; fifty 
bushels of wheat to the acre is not uncommon, while the 
average for the whole country is about thirty-five. About 
four-fifths of the land is arable, and live-stock are com- 
paratively unimportant. Pigs are kept, which can be fed 



i 2 6 THE BRITISH ISLES 

on low-quality potatoes or grain, and there are some cattle. 
These are either grazed on the small area of pasture or 
fattened in yards : their manure is of great value. 

Note the line of towns, Lincoln, Peterborough, Hunting- 
don, and Cambridge, where rivers entered the former marsh- 
land. Peterborough, like many towns in the clay vale, is 
famous for bricks, and Fletton, near by, has given its name 
to a variety of brick. 

Breckland. Breckland, on the borders of Norfolk and 
Suffolk, is of poor sandy soil inhabited, until recently, 
principally by rabbits. There is good pheasant and part- 
ridge shooting, and sporting rents are often higher than 
agricultural rents! Much of Breckland has now been 
planted with conifers under a Government afforestation 
scheme : it is the largest forest in England. 

The Broads. The Broads are shallow lakes near the mouth 
of the Yare. In Roman times what is now Broadland 
formed a wide bay, but the movement of material from 
farther north by the tide gradually formed a spit of shingle 
and sand between the open sea and the bay. This em- 
bankment was sufficiently firm for the foundation of Yar- 
mouth in the eleventh century (see diagram 47). Behind 
this barrier rivers dropped their silt. Much of this marsh- 
land has been reclaimed, but the deeper hollows of the 
original bay are the reed - bordered broads, a popular 
holiday resort. This area then is an example of land exten- 
sion in historical times, but on the Norfolk coast to the north 
of the Broads the opposite, the loss of land to the sea, has 
happened. Here six coastal villages have been lost since 
the Norman Conquest and, since Roman times, the coast- 
line has moved inwards some two to three miles. It is not 
possible in a book of this size to mention even the major 
changes in the coast-line of the British Isles in historical 
time: it must be realized that what has been described is 
not an isolated case. 



EAST ANGLIA: THE FENS 



127 



Question 3. The main recent changes in the coast-line 
have been on the east and south-east coasts of England. 
Explain. 




Diagram 47. Map showing (i) the Site of Great Yar- 
mouth, (ii) an Earlier Bay now covered by the Broads 
and Drained Marshland 

The reclaimed marshland of Yare, Bure, and Waveney, 
and parts of Leicestershire, Rutland, and Northampton- 
shire, particularly along the low-lying valleys of the Welland 



i 2 8 THE BRITISH ISLES 

and Nen, are good 'fattening' pastures. Both areas are 
shown on the sketch-map, and part of the East Anglian 
district is shown in greater detail in the map of Broadland 
(diagram 47). In the latter area the cattle pasture, with 
but a few scattered houses, forms a striking contrast to the 
surrounding land, which is almost entirely arable. In both 
areas the usual practice is to buy bullocks, commonly Short- 
horns, in the spring, often from Wales or Ireland, fatten 
them during the summer, and sell them off in the autumn. 
The area of Welland and Nen is the most important 'fatten- 
ing ' region in the country. The farmers, with little to do in 
the winter, often hunt, for this well-known grassland is the 
most famous hunting country, the home of the Quorn and 
the Pytchley (first y pronounced as in 'cycle'). 

Question 4. Northampton, Kettering, and smaller 
towns near by form the most famous district in England 
for boot and shoe manufacture. Suggest a reason for 
the growth of the industry here. 

The chief town in East Anglia is Norwich, at the junction 
of Yare and Wensum, and the city can be reached by small 
sea-going ships Norwich, at one time the greatest manu- 
facturing town in the whole country, was important for 
woollens, for the district produced, and still produces, wool 
and, even to-day, there is a large sheep market. The word 
worsted, applied to cloth made from long-staple wool, is 
derived from the name of a small town to the north-east 
of Norwich. 

Question 5. Why did Norwich lose its woollen in- 
dustry? [Remember that the first power-driven spin- 
ning and weaving machines were driven by water-mills 
in fast-running streams, and that the steam engine came 
later.] 

Question 6. Among the present industries of Norwich 
are sugar-beet refining, mustard, starch, beer, cider, 



EAST ANGLIA; THE FENS 129 

malt vinegar, agricultural implements. What common 
factor can be noticed about these? [There is also an 
important boot and shoe industry : this was introduced 
into the city when the wool trade was lost.] 

Agricultural machinery was the basis of industry at 
Lincoln and Ipswich, but to-day it is, for example, the 
manufacture of excavating machinery and steam rollers 
that is important at Lincoln, and of cranes at Ipswich. 
It is to be noted that Lincoln, a gap town in the limestone 
Lincoln Edge, was never important for woollens, for the 
water is hard. 

Ports in this region, King's Lynn, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, 
Ipswich, Harwich, are small. The trade of King's Lynn 
and Ipswich is mainly local, but Harwich must be considered 
as an outport of London. From it go the ferries to the 
Netherlands (Hook of Holland) and to Denmark (Esbjerg), 
and its imports include dairy produce, eggs, and bacon, 
destined for the London market. 

Question 7. (i) For what are Yarmouth and Lowestoft 
famous? 

(ii) 'A good October makes Yarmouth prosperous,' 
said to the author by a Yarmouth shopkeeper. Explain 
what the shopkeeper meant. (Chapter I.) 

Question 8. Of the two great university towns, Oxford 
and Cambridge, the latter is shown on the sketch-map 
and Oxford is just outside it to the south-west. Why 
should the old universities have been in the southern 
part of England ? 

Question g. Draw a sketch-map of Lincolnshire, 
dividing it into main regions. Note that there are 
two ridges, those of the Lincoln Edge and Lincoln 
Wolds. The clay vale between passes southwards into 
the Fens. On the east coast is some valuable grazing 
land, the so-called Lincolnshire 'Marsh.' In the 



i 3 o THE BRITISH ISLES 

extreme north-west of the county, that is, between Don 
and Trent, is an area known as the Isle of Axholme. 
This is drained marshland, and its fertile soil gives 
heavy crops of potatoes, sugar-beet, wheat, and vege- 
tables. Here is found the practice, mentioned in the 
discussion of the Vale of York, of trapping the flood 
tide of the river, in this case the Trent, behind dykes 
and allowing the mud to settle. 

Examination Questions 

i . Compare and contrast the farming activities of south- 
west Ireland with those of East Anglia. (London.) 

2. Describe the characteristic type of farming in each of 
the counties, Aberdeenshire, Cheshire, Suffolk, and account 
for the differences. (Cambridge.) 

3. By reference to contrasted geographical conditions 
account for the more even distribution of population in 
East Anglia than in Wales. (London.) 

4. State briefly the relief features, the types of farming, 
and the industrial activities occurring along a line drawn 
from Liverpool to Lincoln. (London.) 

5. Contrast the geographical conditions which are favour- 
able to (a) wheat growing, (b) pastoral activities. Illustrate 
your answer by reference to one area of each type in the 
British Isles. (London.) 



CHAPTER XII 



SOUTH-EASTERN ENGLAND 



South-eastern Englaiid was, in the past, covered with a 
great thickness of chalk, which was later forced up into an 
arch during the Alpine period of mountain building. The 
effects of the weather were most severe on the highest parts, 




Diagram 48. Geological Map of South-eastern England 

which were probably some three thousand feet above sea 
level, and so the top of the arch has been worn away 
to reveal the layers underneath. The present structure 
shown in diagrams 48 and 49 is a heart of Wealden sand- 
stone with horse-shoe-shaped areas which partially surround 
it. The Greensand is insignificant south of the Wealden 
sandstone, and has been ignored on the map. The chalk 
comes to the sea in steep white cliffs around Dover and 
Beachy Head, although, in the past, the arch was continued 
eastwards to the Continent. 

131 



132 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Question i. What evidence is there of this eastward 
continuation? 




StA 



•^ 



Diagram 49. Section from North to South across South-eastern 
England 

The sketch-map, diagram 50, shows the height of ground, 
and thus is not quite the same as the geological sketch. It 
will be seen that the North and South Downs are of chalk, 



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Diagram 50. Sketch-map: South-eastern England 

but a part only of the Greensand and Wealden sands form 
high land. The scarps of the North and South Downs face 
inward and, although these hills are low, the scarps are 



SOUTH-EASTERN ENGLAND 133 

often some four hundred feet high and are steep (see dia- 
gram 51, map 2). 

A discussion of the farming is best done according to 
these main geological divisions. The Wealden sandstone is 
agriculturally poor, except in Kent, where hops and fruit 
are grown. The higher parts, often called the Forest 
Ridges, are mainly under grass, with sheep and cattle and 
poultry farms, but there are many areas of woodland and 
heathland, for example, Ashdown Forest, and these, with 
well-drained soil, open views, and cheap land, have become 
favourite residential districts. 

Question 2. The Weald clay is heavy and is mainly 
under grass, with sheep and cattle, although some lighter 
soils are ploughed for mixed farming. Why have the 
heavy soils been kept as grass? 

The Greensand on the west is high, the sands coarse, and 
the soils poor, so that the area is open heathland or pine 
forest. At Leith Hill it reaches nearly a thousand feet, 
the highest point of south-eastern England. To the east, 
mainly in Kent, where the land is lower and the sands finer, 
the ground is highly cultivated. Around Maidstone and in 
the Medway valley generally, fruit and hops are important, 
the steep scarp face of the Greensand with a southerly 
exposure being particularly good for fruit. A point about 
the siting of orchards which is not generally realized may 
be mentioned here. Late frosts which may kill the blossom 
are the fruit-grower's nightmare, and an orchard on a hill- 
slope often avoids these. Cold air at night, being heavy, will 
flow down the hill, and settle in the valley, so the valley 
bottom is colder than the hill-slope. Apples, pears, plums, 
and soft fruit are the main crops, and there are now canning 
factories at Maidstone and other towns in the neighbourhood. 

The Gault clay at the foot of the downs is hardly ever 
under the plough, but where it joins the chalk or the Green- 
sand the mixed soils give rise to a narrow strip of arable land. 



i 3 4 THE BRITISH ISLES 

On the South Downs, the l whale-backed ' downs, as 
Kipling called them from their great smooth humps, sheep 
feed on the coarse, crisp grass. The lower slopes are culti- 
vated often on the 'sheep with corn' system described in 
Chapter IV, although, as was mentioned there, to-day 
dairy-farming also is carried on if water is available. The 
North Downs are usually not so open as the South, for 
there is often a capping of clay with flints, which is usually 
under grass or woodland. 

The area in Kent between the North Downs and the 
Thames estuary, although sometimes included in the London 
basin, will be considered now. Here are rich loamy soils 
given over to fruit, cherry, apple, pear, raspberry, goose- 
berry, strawberry, and, in addition, hops. Kent is often 
called the ' Garden of England, 5 and the rich cultivation of 
this area and of the Medway valley gives it a right to the 
title. The author Camden, writing on Britain at the end 
of the sixteenth century, was able to say of Kent : ' Pomis ad 
miraculum abundans nee non cerasis. 5 More than two- 
thirds of all the hops of' Great Britain are grown in mid 
Kent and east Sussex, and about one-quarter of the area in 
Britain devoted to fruit is found in this region. A hop 
garden is a strange sight to a visitor. Tall poles are placed 
in lines across the fields, and up these the plants climb. 
Wires are fixed between the poles, and the plants twine 
round these as well. Not only do hops require a good deal of 
attention during their growing season, but much extra labour 
is required at harvest, and thousands of Londoners, prin- 
cipally from the East End, go hop-picking — a combination 
of holiday and work. It is clear that, with all the work 
necessary for the cultivation of hops, the crop is not worth 
growing unless conditions are suitable. This is the reason 
why the distribution of hops is so limited in the British 
Isles. In the hop country oast-houses, used for drying 
the hops before they are sold to the brewers, are a common 
sight. 



nHHMtiSF'Jf^^v 



'M^mfc, 




SOUTH-EASTERN ENGLAND 135 

Question 3, Where is the ' Garden of Scotland'? 
(Chapter V.) 

Question 4. Which is the other important area in 
England for hops? (Chapter IX.) 

Diagram 48 shades Romney Marsh and the Pevensey 
Levels as marsh, but this name is misleading. The greater 
part of both is below the level of the highest tides, but the 
areas have been reclaimed from the sea, from which they 
are now protected by a sea wall. Both are well drained, 
and thus the name marsh is really a misnomer. They are 
mainly under grass but, strangely enough, Romney is a sheep- 
rearing area, whereas Pevensey rears mainly beef cattle. 
Why Romney should be better for feeding sheep and 
Pevensey better for grazing cattle seems to be a mystery. 
Romney Marsh is somewhat bleak in the winter, and it is 
usual for the lambs to be sent to inland farms during the 
colder months. It will have been noticed that south-east 
England, that is, the Downs and the land between, is essen- 
tially a grassland area with dairying and sheep rearing as 
the two main occupations. There are, naturally, a number 
of general live-stock markets, for example, at Guildford, 
Ashford, and Lewes. Rye is noted for its sheep market, and 
Ashford and other towns for their sheep fairs. 

Question 5. South-east England has many cement works. 
Why? [The most famous area for cement is along 
the lower Medway. Here, in fact, is to be found the 
largest industrial population centre of the whole of 
south-east England. Rochester has been marked on 
the sketch-map, and an atlas will show Gillingham and 
Chatham (a naval town) near by. Paper making, an 
old Kentish industry, is carried on there, using im- 
ported wood pulp. Steam rollers and tractors are 
made at Rochester, in the works founded by their 
inventor.] 



136 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Iron smelting has been important in south-east England, 
based on ironstone in the Wealden clay of Sussex and local 
charcoal, but the industry died with the introduction of 
coke smelting, and with the exhaustion of the forests in the 
late eighteenth century. Now only place-names such as 
Cinder Hill, Furnace Farm, or Forge attest to its former 
greatness. The railings round St. Paul's Cathedral are 
made of Sussex iron. Coal is mined in the Dover area, and 
there is iron ore in some of the beds above the coal, but, as 
has been said earlier, the opening of these mines is but 
recent, and no industrial area has as yet arisen. The bulk 
of the coal is used by the Southern Railway, and there is an 
overhead cable for its easy transport from the pithead to 
Dover. 

It is strange that the name Weald ( =forest) has persisted 
in this region, for most of England was, at one time, forested, 
and not only this area. The explanation is probably this. 
South-east England has long been the home of man, and it 
has been invaded not only by Romans, Saxons, and Normans, 
but even earlier by Stone Age men when it was joined to 
the Continent, for the break did not occur until about 
5000 B.C. The area to the east, where Saxons conquered 
the Cantii, became Kent, Sussex was held by the south 
Saxons, while a branch of the middle Saxons from Middlesex 
established themselves in Surrey. These three groups of 
agricultural people were separated by the forest of the in- 
fertile central sandstone ; the boundaries were not lines, but 
an area, and the name 'weald' for the area has persisted. 
The sketch-map shows that the modern boundary lines 
meet in the Wealden sand. 

In the days of the chalk dome rivers flowed north and 
south from the central water parting. Denudation was so 
slow that the rivers have kept their old courses, and broken 
through the chalk rim. Towns are found to north and 
south of these gaps, where the way through the gap meets 
the east and west routes along the foot of the chalk. As has 



SOUTH-EASTERN ENGLAND 



137 



been said earlier, the hills are not high, but it is the steep 
scarp slopes which make communication difficult. Some of 
these gap towns are shown on the map. Diagram 51 shows 




Diagram 51. 1. Guildford as a Gap Town 
(Note the Guildford and Goldaming by-pass that tunnels under the road 

from Guildford to Farnham along the Hog s Back) 
2. A Portion of the North Downs between. Guildford and Dorking 

TO SHOW THE STEEP SOUTHERN SCARP FACE 

the road and rail routes converging on Guildford, where, 
because the chalk hills are here narrower, the two towns 
merge into one. 

There is no first-class harbour in south-eastern England 
and, in the days of sailing ships, difficulties of wind and 



138 THE BRITISH ISLES 

tide, which were considerable because the Channel narrows, 
caused many ports to be used. The Romans used Dover 
and Richborough, the Saxons the Cinque Ports, originally 
Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney, and Hastings, although 
others were added later. The many ports and the un- 
certainty of the point of landing on the English shore owing 
to difficulties of navigation does not mean that separate 
roads were made from each of these ports to London. 
Instead the roads, from the ports in the vicinity of Dover 
converged on Canterbury, and there was then one road 
on to London. This explains the early importance of the 
town (Canterbury =burg of Cantware or people of Kent). 
Augustine chose Canterbury as the centre from which to 
begin the conversion of the country to Christianity, and 
to-day the Archbishop of Canterbury is the Primate of All 
England. Dover, Folkestone, and Newhaven are the modern 
ferry ports with services to the Continent. 

Question 6. The route London-Newhaven-Dieppe- 
Paris is shorter and cheaper than London-Dover- 
Calais-Paris, but the latter is the quicker. Explain. 

Question 7. Many people in south-eastern England 
work in London. The principal areas of new growth 
have been the chalk hills, the higher Greensand, and 
parts of the Forest Ridges. Has this new building 
development affected to any extent the area of good 
agricultural land? 

Question 8. There are many seaside resorts in south- 
eastern England, for example, Margate, Ramsgate, 
Folkestone, Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, and Hove. 
Why are there so many? 

An atlas will show the main railway routes of this region, 
and note should be taken of three: London-Brighton, 
London-Portsmouth, and London-Dover. 



SOUTH-EASTERN ENGLAND 139 

Examination Questions 

1. Draw a sketch-map to show how routes are related to 
relief in either the Southern Uplands of Scotland or south- 
east England (Kent, Surrey, and Sussex). (Cambridge.) 

2. In regard to the area covered by the counties of Kent 
and Sussex : (a) describe and account for the characteristic 
farming activities, (b) suggest reasons for the comparatively 
large number of towns on its coasts. (Cambridge.) 

3. What geographical factors have helped to make: 

(a) Northern Ireland noted for linen manufacturing? 

(b) The South Downs noted for its sheep rearing? 

(c) North Wales noted for its holiday resorts? (Oxford.) 

4. Draw a sketch-map of the country south of a line 
drawn roughly east from London and east of a line drawn 
roughly south from London. Indicate the relief; indicate 
and name three rivers, three inland towns, one port, and 
one seaside resort. (London.) 

5. Select two of the regions: the Midland valley of Scot- 
land and its immediate boundaries, the Fens, the Lake 
District, the Weald and the hills surrounding it. Describe 
the relief and the drainage of the regions you select, and 
point out how the drainage is related to the relief. For 
each of the two regions mention two distinct types of farm- 
ing which are important. (C.W.B.) 

6. Draw a large sketch-map of East Anglia and south- 
east England (east of a line from the Wash through London 
to Brighton), indicating and naming: 

(a) The general relief features. 

(b) Any three rivers. 

(c) The Chalk Ridges and the Norfolk Broads. 

(d) One coal-mining district, one important fishing port, 
and the chief fruit-growing area. 

(e) Norwich, Ipswich, Maidstone, and Dover. 

(London.) 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE HAMPSHIRE BASIN 



The Hampshire basin (diagram 52) is a lowland of clays and 
sands, surrounded by a rim of chalk hills. To the east, 
north, and west the chalk is continuous, but to the south it is 




Diagram 52. Sketch-map: the Hampshire Basin 

broken by the Solent and Spithead, although the chalk may 
be traced through the Isle of Wight, and the Needles to the 
west of the island are chalk stacks. 

The coastal areas, including the Isle of Wight, are among 
the sunniest in the British Isles, with some 1,700 to 1,800 
hours of sunshine per year, and seaside resorts, for example, 
Weymouth, Bournemouth, Bognor Regis, and Worthing, 
facing south to the sun and the sea, line the coasts. 

Question /. If a town, for example, Ventnor (Isle of 
Wight), not only faces south, but has hills behind, the 
winter climate is mild. What is the advantage to the 
town of the hills? 

These towns are not only holiday resorts, for they have 

140 



THE HAMPSHIRE BASIN 141 

attracted many retired people, who have made them their 
homes; Bournemouth, although without industries, has 
over 120,000 people. 

The type of farming commonly practised in chalk areas 
has been described in Chapter IV, but over some of the 
barren part of this chalk upland, as on Salisbury Plain, wide 
spaces are used as military training grounds. The clay 
areas of the basin are usually of fertile soil used for mixed 
farming and fruit, while the sands are often covered with 
heathland or woodland, for example, the New Forest. In 
the sunny sheltered strip in Sussex between the South 
Downs and the sea, market gardening is important, and the 
tomatoes of Worthing are particularly well known. 

The Hampshire basin is without coal, industry is usually 
unimportant, and the inland towns are market centres. 
Winchester, Salisbury, and Dorchester are, in addition, 
county towns, for, although this region is called the Hamp- 
shire basin, it includes parts of Sussex, Wiltshire, and Dorset. 
But two towns, Portsmouth and Southampton, have not 
merely a local, but a national importance. Diagram 53 
shows the circular shape of Portsmouth harbour, with its 
narrow entrance. Large enough to hold a fleet, with an 
easily guarded entrance, with long-range guns on Ports 
Down behind, and with a good roadstead in Spithead, it 
represents an ideal naval base. Many 'wooden walls' were 
built in Southampton Water from New Forest oak ; three of 
Nelson's ships at Trafalgar were built at Beaulieu (pro- 
nounced to rhyme with 'duly'). Southampton is a port of 
recent growth, for less than a century ago the town was a 
small watering place. The enterprise of the Southern Rail- 
way has had much to do with its modern importance, for the 
railway company has been responsible for dredging, land 
reclamation for new docks and warehouses, and the pro- 
vision of up-to-date port facilities, including the largest 
graving dock in the world (see diagram 53). In addition a 
fast train service to London, which saves twelve hours over 



142 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



the sea journey, has made the port the premier passenger port 
of the country, with about one-third of the total traffic. In 
fact, Southampton must be considered as an outport of 
London, for about one-half of its imports go there. The 
hinterland of Southampton, that is, the area served by the 




Diagram 53. The Sites of Southampton and Portsmouth 
(Inset shows Southampton docks) 

port, is nearly the whole country, and includes not only 
northern England, but even Scotland. Its trade is world- 
wide, but is principally with New Zealand and Australia 
(meat and butter), South Africa (wool, hides, and fruit), 
South America (meat), and north-west North America 
(fruit, salmon, and timber) . Southampton has some manu- 
factures in engineering, aircraft, and tobacco. One further 
point may be added. Ships going to or coming from 
Poland, Germany, Holland, and Belgium pass through 
the English Channel, and many of them, particularly the 
passenger liners, call at Southampton, not only adding to the 
importance of the port, but providing Britain with a magni- 
ficent service. 



THE HAMPSHIRE BASIN 143 

Question 2. It will have been noted above in the 
description of Southampton: 

(a) That the twelve hours' saving of time on the 
journey to London has made the town a great passenger 
port. 

(b) That the imports (one-half of which come to 
London) are mainly of perishable goods of high value 
compared with their bulk, e.g. meat, butter, fruit. 

Comment on these two facts. 



CHAPTER XIV 



SOUTH-WESTERN ENGLAND 



In the broad physical division of Great Britain made in 
Chapter I south-west England was included in the highland 
zone. Diagram 54 shows, however, that the peninsula is a 




PLAND 



_,%<> MLS. 



CC - CHINA CLAY 
ShA « SLA.U3TE.LU 



Diagram 54. Sketch-map: South-western England 

region of upland bosses and intervening valleys. These 
highlands, usually of granite, although Exmoor is sandstone, 
made invasion difficult; Roman remains are few west of 
the Exe, and the Saxons did not cross the Tamar. Although 
this peninsula has not a special name like Wales or Scotland, 
the people are allied to the Welsh and the Bretons, and the 

144 



SOUTH-WESTERN ENGLAND 145 

Cornish language was in common use until the eighteenth 
century. Cornwall is often called the land of tre and pol 
and pen (fr£=hamlet, j^=pool or stream, ^w=headland 
or summit), because these words of the Cornish language 
are so often found in place-names. The following place- 
names are all within a few miles of Land's End : Tresidder, 
Trevedran, Trevorgan, Trevear, Trevadra; Poldhu, Pol- 
bream, Poltesco, Polcornick, Polurrian; Penzance, Pendeen, 
Pennance, Penmenor, Pen Ennys. Even to-day a Cornish- 
man will still talk of going to England when he crosses the 
Tamar. 

The upland areas are heather-covered, rolling moorland, 
with some bog, rising to some two thousand feet. The 
granite moorlands, particularly Dartmoor, are sometimes 
crowned with 'tors, 5 fantastically shaped piles of granite 
blocks, often weighing several tons. Farms in the valleys 
of the moorland are concerned mainly with sheep, although 
some cattle are reared and oats, turnips, and potatoes are 
grown. Sheep and cattle from lowland farms are grazed in 
summer on the wilder unenclosed portions of the moor. 

Question 1. What are the advantages of Dartmoor as 
a site for a prison? 

Although the higher lands are bleak in winter, elsewhere, 
particularly on the sheltered south coast, winters are the 
mildest in Britain. It is possible to subdivide these low- 
lands into many minor regions, but it is broadly true to say 
that grass is the best crop, and the rearing of cattle the main 
thought of the farmer. It is not easy to state simply yet 
accurately the areas in which beef or dairy cattle pre- 
dominate, but beef cattle are important in Cornwall and 
the plain of Devon, i.e. between Exmoor and Dartmoor, 
while dairy cattle are numerous south of Dartmoor. To-day 
the milk is seldom made into butter on the farm, but is sold 
to local creameries; in summer much clotted cream, so 
popular with tourists in both Devon and Cornwall, is made. 



146 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Particularly in Devon many farms have a few acres of cider 
orchards, although here again the making of cider on the 
farm is decreasing, and the apples are usually sold to big 
companies, who make the cider in large factories. 

Question 2. What are the advantages of mild winters 
in the rearing of cattle? (Page 83.) 

Question j. Pig-breeding is common in south-west 
England. Why? (Page 66.) 

Question 4. In the extreme south-west, particularly in 
the Mount's Bay district, the production of early flowers 
(narcissi, daffodils) and vegetables (early potatoes, broc- 
coli) is very important. What advantage has this area 
over the rest of England for these crops ? [The Scilly 
Isles, lying nearly thirty miles to the west of Land's End, 
may be compared with the extreme south-west of Corn- 
wall, except that flower growing is the main occupation, 
but for a few very early potatoes.] 

In addition to the Mount's Bay district one other special 
area must be mentioned. This is the lower Tarnar valley, 
where flowers, mainly narcissi, and fruit, particularly straw- 
berries, raspberries, and black-currants, are grown. 

South-west England was the home of the old sea-dog, 
who was trader, explorer, and pirate, for the coasts, parti- 
cularly in the south, are indented and small fishing villages 
nestle in nearly every cove. Diagram 55 shows a typical 
drowned valley or ' ria ' of this coast. The northern coast 
is wilder, less protected and, in some cases, with high un- 
broken cliffs as, for example, north of Exmoor, and fishing 
villages are scarcer. The fishing industry to-day, with 
Newlyn as the chief port, is small compared with that in the 
North Sea. Since the coming of the cheap motor car, 
fishing is often merely a side-line to the more profitable 
business of boarding the many tourists who crowd in summer 
into the picturesque villages. 








5 Sfcto. 



British Council 
DARTMOOR. The photograph shows a lonely road across the 
moor : Dartmoor ponies are seen in the foreground 




The Times 
BOSCASTLE, CORNWALL. A view of the steep rocky cliffs of 
Cornwall, and the entrance to a cove 



SOUTH-WESTERN ENGLAND 



147 



Question 5. If a cove faces towards the south-west 
there is often no village. Why is this? 

Question 6. There is a winter tourist industry in 
south-western England as well as a summer one. Why? 



jl ,2, MUS 




FALMOUTH 



Diagram 55. A Drowned Valley (Ria) 

The call of the sea is, however, still strong, and many 
young men find their way into the navy and merchant 
service. The tourist industry is important inland as well, 
for not only do the moorlands attract summer visitors, 
but also the charming Devonshire villages with their white- 
washed, thatched-roof cottages. Devon lanes are pretty, 
too, for they wind between high hedges which are often 
stone walls on which earth has been piled and shrubs 
planted, so that the stone is invisible beneath its covering 
of green. 

It has been said earlier that the Cassiterides were perhaps 
this region, or the Scillies — certain it is that tin and copper 



148 THE BRITISH ISLES 

have been mined for centuries. Copper is no longer mined, 
and the tin industry is moribund, for, with its deep mines of 
2,000-3,000 ft., it cannot compete against the more easily 
obtained tin of Malaya. The mines have a short lease of 
life when the world price of tin is high, and then close down 
when the value falls. The chief mines are around Cam- 
borne and Redruth, and there is still a school of mining ; 
Cornish-trained mining engineers are found all over the 
world. Again, in these small towns are to be found the 
offices of great mining companies operating perhaps for tin 
in Malaya or for gold in West Australia. In parenthesis, it 
may be noted how inaccurate to-day is the old county toast 
in Cornwall: 'Fish, tin, copper.' Kaolin or china clay is 
the only important mineral obtained to-day; and diagram 
54 shows the principal areas; the most productive is that 
behind St. Austell. The clay is chemically altered granite, 
and is so soft that it can be washed down the sides of 
the quarries with hoses into tanks, where the china clay is 
allowed to settle. The heaps of waste material near the pits, 
looking like pyramids, give a strange appearance to the bare 
moorlands. Kaolin is valuable, not only for pottery, but as 
a filling for paper, and to give weight and finish to cotton 
goods. It is usually sent to other parts of England by 
coasting steamer ; Fowey (pronounced Foy) is an important 
port in this trade, others are Falmouth and Plymouth. 

Question 7. State the name of one part of England to 
which kaolin is sent. (Chapter VIII.) 

With coal almost absent the Industrial Revolution had 
little effect on the distribution of population in the south- 
west, and industry is unimportant. The once famous 
woollen manufacture is to-day negligible, and Devon and 
Cornwall contain but little more than a million people. 
There are few large towns. Exeter has a population of over 
200,000, but the largest town in Cornwall, Camborne, has 
but 14,000 people. Exeter was a small port and the lowest 



SOUTH-WESTERN ENGLAND , 149 

bridge point of the Exe ; it is still a great market town and a 
cathedral city. Plymouth has a good harbour, and is a 
local port, but its use as a port of call for liners has declined 
in favour of Southampton. Adjoining Plymouth is the 
naval base of Devonport. The tourist industry is the cause 
of the growth of Exmouth, Torquay, Ilfracombe, and many 
others. 

Question 8. Seaside resorts on the south have attracted 
many retired people. What are the attractions? 

Two railways serve the area, and the main lines have been 
shown. The G.W.R. runs from Taunton to Exeter, then 
skirts south round Dartmoor to Plymouth and Penzance; 
while the S.R., also serving Exeter and Plymouth, goes north 
round Dartmoor. The S.R. serves north Devon. 

Examination Questions 

1. Draw a sketch-map of the south-western peninsula of 
England (west of Exeter) , and : 

(a) Show and name three areas of upland. 

(b) Indicate by a dot and name one important port and 
two seaside resorts. 

(c) Indicate by shading one area of china clay production, 
and mark the port whence the clay is exported. 

(d) Show the main railway route from Exeter to Fal- 
mouth, and that from Exeter to Barnstaple. (London.) 

2. Account for the differences shown by the following 
information : 

Average density of pop. 
per sq. mile 

(a) North-east England (Northumberland and 
Durham) •. . . . . • . 753 

(b) South-west England (Cornwall and Devon) . 266 

(c) Central Wales (Brecknock, Montgomery, and 

Radnor) ....... 64 

(Cambridge.) 



i 5 o THE BRITISH ISLES 

3. Give a concise and orderly geographical account of 
either Devon and Cornwall or Northumberland and 
Durham. Illustrate your answer by a large sketch-map 
showing the main relief features, lines of communication, 
location of major resources, and chief towns. (London.) 

4. Select two of the following areas : the Potteries, Corn- 
wall, the Lanarkshire coal-field, Ulster. Describe the 
activities of the people and say why those activities are 
carried on in the areas selected. (Oxford.) 



CHAPTER XV 
somerset: BRISTOL 



The area to be discussed, diagram 56, is the isthmus east of 
the south-western peninsula which has just been described, 




Diagram 56. Sketch-map: Somerset 

but outside the chalk-girdled Hampshire basin. The lower 
Parret, sometimes called the Bridgwater Flats, is low-lying 
marshy alluvium, and careful drainage is necessary. This 
is one of the areas of Britain where it is possible to fatten 
cattle on grass alone, but this has been supplanted to some 
f 151 



1 52 THE BRITISH ISLES 

extent by the rearing of dairy cattle for milk and cheese. 
East of the Bridgwater Flats is the well-known cheese-making 
area : Cheddar has given its name to a variety of cheese, 
made in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire as well as in Somer- 
set, and also imitated abroad, for a similar cheese, made in 
Canada, is sold in English shops as Canadian 'cheddar.' 
The Vale of Taunton contains some of the richest soil in the 
whole of England, and it is probably this fertile tract that 
has caused the name 'Smiling Somerset' to be given to the 
county. This is a region not only of dairy cattle, but also 
of market gardens and cider orchards. It is only to the east 
of Somerset, on the land sloping up to the hills, that arable 
farming is of any moment. 

Question i. A greater proportion of the milk produced 
in this area is sent away as milk than is the case in Devon 
or Cornwall. Why is this? 

Question 2. Give the names of other areas in Great 
Britain famous for their 'fattening' pastures. 

The Mendips show all the characteristics of poor lime- 
stone regions, caves, underground rivers, and steep-sided 
gorges, and they may be compared with the southern part 
of the Pennines. The best-known gorge is that of Cheddar 
and, in fact, the name probably means gorge or cave. 

An atlas will show that the boundary of north-west 
Somerset is in Exmoor, which has already been described 
in the previous chapter. 

The Somerset plain, especially in the higher eastern 
districts, is dotted with small market towns. Here and 
farther north, in the Cotswolds, was the seat of the once 
prosperous west of England woollen industry, for, unlike 
Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire mentioned earlier, 
there were here both wool and soft water. There are still 
some woollen goods made as, for example, at Frome (pro- 
nounced Froom). 



SOMERSET: BRISTOL 



153 



The chief port is Bristol (=the site of the bridge), but the 
town, like others in western Great Britain, did not become 
great until after the discovery of America. Before this it 
had merely a small trade with Ireland. Once trade with 
America and Africa began Bristol had many advantages. 
Of the rivers flowing into the Bristol Channel the valley of 
the Bristol Avon offered the best route to the Thames basin, 
and thus to what was then the only important part of 
England. Its western position was of advantage in the days 



DOCKS % 




UPLANDloVE*. ZOO APPROXj f££j B(U8TOu[su6URBs] 



Diagram 57. The Site of Bristol 

of sailing ships, for the difficult navigation of the English 
Channel was avoided. Diagram 57 shows that the city is 
some six miles from the sea, and the port probably grew up 
here because seaward of the Clifton gorge the land was 
low, liable to flooding, and more open to attack. The 
seventeenth century was the heyday of Bristol's prosperity, 
when the great triangular trade grew up, that is, trinkets to 
Africa, which were exchanged for slaves, slaves from West 
Africa to North America, and, the third leg of the triangle, 
from America to Bristol with sugar and tobacco. 



i 5 4 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Question 3. The Industrial Revolution and the coming 
of the steamship led to the decline of Bristol and the rise 
of Liverpool. Explain. 

There was another cause of Bristol's decline, the increasing 
size of ships, for it is difficult to widen or to dredge the lime- 
stone Clifton gorge which lies to the seaward (diagram 57). 
This disadvantage has been overcome by building docks at 
Avonmouth. Trade to-day is still mainly with West Africa 
and America, for example, grain, timber, petroleum, oil- 
seeds and oil-nuts, bananas, cocoa. 

Question 4. The small coal-field in the neighbour- 
hood of Bristol has been shown (diagram 56) , and the 
manufactures of the town include tobacco, cocoa and 
chocolate, soap. Suggest why these industries should 
have grown up. 

Question 5. The export trade of Bristol is small. Why 
should this be so? 

Bath, on the Avon, in a gap in the Cotswolds, is a town 
famous for its 'waters' and hot springs, and it was a health 
resort even as far back as the time of the Romans. The 
Roman baths, some of which still exist, have given the town 
its name. 

There are holiday resorts on the Bristol Channel, and 
these are the nearest seaside towns to Birmingham: the 
largest, Weston-super-Mare, has been marked on the 
sketch-map. 

Important main line railways cross the area : the G.W.R. 
(from Paddington), which tunnels under the Severn on its 
way to South Wales; and the G.W.R. (from Paddington) 
and the S.R. (from Waterloo), on their way to Exeter and 
the west. 



SOMERSET: BRISTOL 155 

Examination Questions 

1 . Draw sketch-maps to show the position of three of the 
following towns : Carlisle, Hull, Bristol, Stirling, Inverness. 
Add notes to explain the importance of each. (Oxford.) 

2. Select three of the following ports : Leith, Southamp- 
ton, Bristol, Cardiff. Describe the situation and explain the 
character of the trade of each port selected. Sketch-maps 
are expected. (Oxford.) 

3. The chief animal industries in Britain comprise wool 
production, fattening for beef, and dairying. Name one 
area where each of these activities is carried on, and explain 
the geographical suitability of two of the areas for the in- 
dustries carried on in them. (London.) 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE LONDON BASIN 



The sketch-map (diagram 58) shows not only the London 
basin, that is, the region inside the chalk of the Chilterns 




I A UPLAND 



,Zo 



,4-o mus 



Diagram 58. Sketch-map : the London Basin 

and the North Downs, but also part of the clay vale between 
the chalk and limestone hills. Diagram 59 shows how the 




S.E.. 



N.DOWN 3 



LOHDOH CLAY fcTC. 
CHALK 



GAULT CLAY 

GR£e.NSAND 



VLRTtCAL SCALE. EXAGGERATE.© 2A- TIMtS 



Diagram 59. Geological Section from the Chiltern 
Hills to the North Downs 

chalk of the Chilterns dips under the London area and 
reappears in the North Downs. The rocks of the London 

156 



THE LONDON BASIN 157 

basin are thus younger than the chalk, and of these the most 
widespread is the stiff, impermeable London clay. This is 
not the only rock, for there are glacial gravels and boulder 
clay, patches of sand, and also river gravels deposited when 
the Thames flowed at a higher level than it does now. The 
London basin may thus be subdivided into a number of 
minor regions, but it is sufficient here to consider how the 
land is used. There is a number of areas of poor soil, 
usually of sand or gravel, such as Hampstead Heath, Bag- 
shot Heath, Blackheath, and Wimbledon and Clapham 
commons. These have always been agriculturally unpro- 
ductive, and those in London now provide very welcome 
open spaces. Bagshot has been marked on the map, and 
the heath around it is the only one which need be noted. 
The military centre of Aldershot, with its nearby training 
grounds, is on these infertile Bagshot sands. There are 
some tracts of fertile soil which should be shown on the 
map, the Lea valley for market gardening and with many 
glasshouses, and the Thames valley, particularly the northern 
side in Middlesex, with market gardening and fruit. Most 
of the remainder of the London basin is clay, mainly under 
permanent grass, and supplying milk to London. The very 
fertile area in Kent, north of the North Downs, is often 
included in the London basin, but for convenience was 
dealt with in Chapter XII, on south-eastern England. 

In Chapter XI it was pointed out that the clay vale in 
Huntingdonshire, south Cambridgeshire, and Bedfordshire 
was covered with chalky boulder clay; here, farther south, 
there is no glacial deposit, and thus Oxfordshire and north 
Buckinghamshire are mainly under grass, and supply milk 
to London. The vale of Aylesbury is especially famous for 
milk. 

Diagram 60 shows the railway routes through the Chil- 
terns : it shows a number of small gap-towns and the manner 
in which the railways have used the easiest routes through 
the hills. 



1 5 8 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



Although most of this chapter will obviously be a dis- 
cussion on the importance of London, there are some other 
towns of which mention must be made. Luton is famous 
for motor cars and hat-shapes. The latter industry is a 




0-300 
i 300-600' 

(OVER* 600' 






» HIGH WYCOMBE. 
JO ,2.0 MLS. 



J 



Diagram 60. Railway Routes from London through the 
Chiltern Hills 



good example of the way manufacturers may be forced to 
change with the times. In the days, not long ago, when 
men wore straw 'boaters' in summer, Luton was the great 
centre of manufacture and, when fashions altered, the 
Luton makers used their knowledge of the hat trade to 
make the hats now wanted. Oxford is not only a university 
town, but is also the chief home of the gigantic Morris 
organization. The reason is that Morris, now Lord Nuffield, 
was the owner of a garage just outside Oxford, and it was 
natural that, when he started motor car manufacture, his 
works should be in the neighbourhood. 



THE LONDON BASIN 159 

Question 1. Luton and Oxford have been mentioned 
as towns where cars are made. Another in this region 
is Dagenham, on Thames side (shown on diagram 63), 
the home of Ford cars in England. Other towns have 
been mentioned in earlier chapters, and it will be 
realized that although some of the centres are near 
coal-fields, others are not. Suggest reasons why fac- 
tories have been started away from the coal-fields. 
[Think (a) of the raw materials other than steel used 
in making a car, (b) how a motor car is taken from one 
part of the country to another, (c) the value of a car 
compared with the cost of raw material.] 

High Wycombe is a great centre for chair-making and for 
furniture. The existence of local beech forests on the lower 
slopes of the chalk may account for the origin of the industry. 
Although the work is now done mainly in factories, there 
are still men who turn chair legs or make complete chairs 
in their own cottages. Such men sell their goods to the 
factories. 

Reading is at the junction of the Thames and the Kennet. 
From Reading north-westwards rail and road pass through 
the Goring gap, where the Thames breaks through the 
chalk hills, and from Reading westwards routes go up the 
Kennet valley to the west country. The town has minor 
manufactures, including that of biscuits. 

Swindon, a great G.W.R. junction, with railway work- 
shops, is a new town, whose very existence is due to the 
coming of the railways. 

Question 2. Give the name of another junction town 
which came into being because of railways (ChapterVIII) . 

A word must be said on the colossal problem of supplying 
the London area with water. The main source of supply 
is the Thames above Teddington, and some is obtained from 

*F 



i6o 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



the Lea and from wells. A number of firms in the 'City' 
supply themselves with water from artesian wells; the 
fountains in Trafalgar Square are fed from this source. 
Diagram 59 shows how the water from the Chilterns and 
the North Downs drains down on the Gault clay, and collects 
in the porous chalk. A well sunk through the overlying 
London clay taps this water. 

In London and the London area live some ten million 
people, nearly one-quarter of the population of Great 




Diagram 6 1 . The Site of London in Roman Times 

Britain. It is necessary to attempt an explanation of this 
amazing fact. Diagram 61 shows part of the Thames valley 
as it was in Roman times. There may have been a small 
settlement before this, for some advantages of the site were 
obvious — the firm land above flood level on which to live, 
and the protection afforded by the marshy ground to the 
east. It seems probable, however, that any early settlement 
was only a landing place on the river leading to Veru- 
lamium (near the present St. Albans). In fact, the Roman 
choice of London as their administrative centre may be 
compared, in some measure, with the British choice in India 
of Calcutta as their early capital rather than Delhi. The 



THE LONDON BASIN 161 

Romans made London the heart of their great road system, 
as, in later times, it has also become the centre of both roads 
and railways. The Thames could be forded at what is 
now Westminster but, either in Roman times or just later, 
a bridge was built, and this definitely fixed London as the 
head of navigation of the river. 

Before the discovery of America, English trade was mainly 
with Europe, and thus it was ports on the east and the south 
that had the greater trade. The Thames led into the 
heart of populated England, and London became, because 
of its central position, not only a great port, but a great 
market town as well. The Roman capital was London, but 
the Normans used Westminster, where the Houses of Parlia- 
ment and many government offices still are, but when 
London expanded westwards to include Westminster, it 
again became the capital of the country. The great point 
to realize is that London was an important town long before 
Liverpool or Manchester or Glasgow or Birmingham. The 
trade was such that even in the sixteenth century the wharves 
just below London Bridge were so crowded that there then 
began the practice, the anchoring of ships in the river 
and unloading into barges, which still persists. But even 
this was found to be insufficient, and in the early nineteenth 
century began the building of docks lower down the river, 
easily cut out of the drained marshland. These are shown 
in diagram 62 and, in some cases, the names are an in- 
dication of the times when they were built. There is some 
specialization; thus the West India and East India Docks 
still handle considerable quantities of goods from these 
areas (e.g. sugar at the West India Docks, tea and silk 
at the East India Docks), the Surrey Commercial Docks 
deal in timber and dairy produce, while the Royal Albert 
Dock deals mainly with meat. The P.L.A. (Port of London 
Authority), which controls the docks and the river, is justly 
proud of the fact that the Royal Victoria, Royal Albert, and 
George V Docks form the largest extent of enclosed dock 



1 62 THE BRITISH ISLES 

water in the world. The river has been systematically 
deepened within recent years, and these docks can accom- 
modate big ships; it was mentioned in Chapter I that the 
ships come up river at high tide, enter the docks, and that 
the dock gates are closed behind them. In the Thames the 




TOWtd 






Diagram 62. The London Docks 
(excluding Tilbury) 

tidal currents provide a good natural scour, although they 
are not strong enough to hinder navigation. It is, however, 
at Tilbury that docks are found which can take any ship in 
the world. Tilbury must be thought of as an outport of 
London ; it handles most of the passenger traffic coming into 
the port of London, and the L.M.S.R. provides good services 
not only to London, but to other parts of the country as well. 

Question 3. All large towns, for example, London, 
New York, Berlin, Paris, are manufacturing centres, 
even although they are not near coal-fields or other 
sources of cheap power. Why is this ? [Consider : (a) a 
manufacturer not only has to make goods, he has to 

them; (b) the difference of the response to an 

advertisement for employees in a local paper in a small 
town and a large.] 

It is not easy in the case of London, as it is in that of, say, 
Bury, Burton, or Bradford, to state the main industry. The 
manufactures may be divided into two classes: (a) those 




^fe* 



r ^ ^ T ^ ^ -^ erofilms 

LONDON DOCKS. The Royal Victoria, Royal Albert, and 

King <-eorge V docks, which together form the largest sheet of 

enclosed dock water in the world (see diagram 62) 



THE LONDON BASIN 



163 



which require little power, so that the disadvantage of 
distance from a coal-field is more than balanced by near- 
ness to a great market and port, and to excellent lines of 
internal communication; (b) those needing bulky goods 
which can most easily be brought by water. 

Question 4. Classify the following, which are some of 
the industries of London and Thames side (the position 
of the Thames-side factories is shown in diagram 63) : 




Diagram 63. The Position of Industrial Centres on Thames Side 
(see Question 4) 

ready-made clothing (East End), clocks and watches 
(Clerkenwell), cement (Purfleet, Northfleet), paper 
(Purfleet, Gravesend, Dartford), Ford motor works 
(Dagenham), oil refineries (Thames Haven), sugar fac- 
tories (Silvertown, near Victoria Docks), flour mills (near 
Victoria Docks and Surrey Commercial Docks), gas 
works (in many places, e.g. Dartford, Barking), electric- 
power stations (in many places near the Thames, e.g. 
Barking, Battersea; remember that the generation of 
electricity here is based on coal), furniture (Shoreditch), 
soap (Bow). 

Question 5. London has lost her former shipbuilding 
industry. Why is this ? [She still retains, however, the 
industry of ship-repairing.] 

The 'southward march of industry' is an unfortunate 



1 64 THE BRITISH ISLES 

phrase in common use to-day. It is unfortunate because it 
suggests an untruth, that the industries of the north are 
coming south. The cotton manufacturers of Lancashire 
are not rebuilding their factories in London, nor are the 
steel makers of Sheffield. What is true, however, is that 
new factories are being set up in the London area. These 
are principally for goods expensive in proportion to their 
size, and requiring little power. A journey, for example, 
along the Great West Road out of London, will show these 
new clean factories with a wide range of products from 
cosmetics to wireless sets. 

London is, in addition, a great market. There are not 
only the great food markets like Billingsgate (fish), Smith- 
field (meat), or Covent Garden (fruit and vegetables), 
which buy and sell for south-eastern England, but also mar- 
kets, for example, in tea, for the whole country. In addi- 
tion, London is also a market for nearby parts of Europe. 
London imports goods which are later exported to Europe ; 
this is called entrepot trade. This is partly because of the 
importance of London as a great market for goods in Britain, 
and also because the British own about one-third of the mer- 
chant navy of the world. In the past this fraction was even 
greater, and it was natural that British traders should send 
goods from abroad to the mother country. London handles 
about 60 per cent of the entrepot trade of Great Britain. 
Rubber, furs, hides, and skins are examples of this trade. 
In the case of wool a more precise explanation is possible. 
London was, in the Middle Ages, a great exporting port for 
wool, and hence became a great wool market. The nature 
of the trade has changed, but London has kept her status 
as a wool market, for, although some high-quality English 
wool is still exported, the trade to-day is almost entirely in 
imports. It has been stated earlier, in Chapter VIII, that 
Hull gets much of her wool, not as a direct import, but by 
coasting steamer from London. This is true not only of 
Hull, but of the adjacent parts of Europe as well. 



THE LONDON BASIN 165 

Question 6. There is an example in Chapter VI of this 
trade, a metal which comes first to London and then 
goes to South Wales. What is it? 

The import trade of London may thus be summed up as 
food, for example, meat, grain, sugar, butter, tea ; and raw 
materials, either for the industries mentioned or because 
London is a great market, for example, wool, hides and 
skins, timber, petroleum, tobacco, furs. The exports are 
much lower in value, and include machinery and motor cars. 

It is often possible, although not with strict accuracy, to 
state that a town falls into a particular category. Bury is a 
great industrial town, York is not, but it is the administra- 
tive centre of Yorkshire, a market town, a shopping and 
amusement centre, and an ecclesiastical city. Other towns 
are important commercially, for example, Manchester, which 
is where the buying and selling of cotton is done. Hull 
is a port. London exercises all these functions. Theatre- 
land and the big shops are in the West End, the great 
government offices are in Whitehall, the commercial area 
is still the ' City,' although commerce is invading the West 
End, and the East End is mainly industrial. 

Question 7. The houses of the wealthier people are in 
the west end of London, Paris, and Berlin. Why is 
this? [Think of the direction of the prevalent winds.] 

Question 8. Should London be allowed to grow any 
bigger? [It is said that Elizabeth was worried over the 
growth of London, which had then about 160,000 
people. Cobbett (1762- 1835), author of the Rural 
Rides, called London 'the great wen' (wen = tumour) . 
The initiation of the 'Green Belt,' that is, the purchase 
of land on the outskirts of London on which building is 
prohibited, should be remembered. Lastly, it is well to 
realize that there are over a quarter of a million trans- 
port workers in London.] 



1 66 THE BRITISH ISLES 

Examination Questions 

1. What geographical factors helped to decide the exact 
position of London on the Thames? What advantages has 
London as (a) an industrial city, (b) a seaport? 

(Cambridge.) 

2. Account for the importance of London as (a) capital 
city, (b) port, (c) manufacturing centre. (Cambridge.) 

3. What geographical reasons help to explain the size 
and importance of London? Give the approximate number 
of people in London. (Oxford.) 

4. Draw a map to illustrate the distribution of the in- 
dustries of one of the following : (a) the Central Lowlands of 
Scotland, (b) Northern Ireland, (c) the London region. 
Give an account of the industries in the region selected. 
(C.W.B.) 

5. Describe the general relief, the climate, the resources, 
and the chief agricultural and manufacturing industries of 
either the Thames basin or the Clyde basin. (London.) 



CHAPTER XVII 



COMMUNICATIONS 



There have been two periods in Britain when roads have 
been good, in the time of the Romans and in the last 
hundred and fifty years. It is not that Britain was any 
different from the rest of Europe in this, for all over Europe 
in the Middle Ages travellers were regarded as deserving 
recipients of Christian charity. 

As long as subsistence farming and cottage industries 
lasted, good communication was not so vital as it is nowa- 
days. It is reported that George II spent a whole night 
covering the seven miles between Kew and St. James's 
Palace and, although the fact that this has been remembered 
suggests that it was unusual, all journeys were painfully 
slow even in the late eighteenth century. From Edinburgh 
to London took between ten and twelve days, and from 
London to Exeter four. Goods were usually carried by 
packhorse, each horse carrying about 2 \ cwt. in panniers, 
and rates were high, for example, from Derby to London the 
charge was from 6s. to *js. 6d. per cwt. Laws were even 
passed fixing the minimum width of wheels because narrow 
ones made deeper ruts, that is, the attempt was made to fit 
the traffic to the roads rather than the roads to the traffic. 
It is obvious that river and coastwise traffic were important, 
and Britain was fortunate in the large number of her streams. 
The Industrial Revolution, which meant the greater use of 
coal and the need to move raw materials to the coal-fields, 
stimulated the use of rivers and of canals, which were built 
towards the end of the eighteenth century. There was a 
canal ' boom, 5 although canals enjoyed but a brief reign, for 
before many of them were completed the railway engine was 
invented. It is even said that some canal beds, which had 

167 



1 68 THE BRITISH ISLES 

never had water in them, were bought by railway companies 
and used for the permanent way. Road, rail, and canal 
form then the main arteries of traffic. 

Question i. Why are nearly all British towns on rivers? 

Question 2. Air transport is not important in Britain 
as it is on the Continent or in the U.S.A. Why is this? 
[Consider (a) distances to be covered, (b) where a 
business man working in the 'City' would have to go 
to get in an aeroplane.] 

Britain is fortunate in that hard stone for road-making 
and for the construction of the permanent way of rail- 
ways is widespread. From the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, when Telford showed the importance of a solid 
foundation and good drainage, and Macadam realized that 
stone broken into pieces of about the same size would bind 
together, the road system of the country has steadily im- 
proved. There was a short coaching era, and most people 
know what a journey in a coach was like from the description 
of Tom Brown's ride to Rugby. The railways, however, 
which, to begin with, only carried goods, soon began to 
carry passengers, and road traffic declined until the coming 
of the motor car. Inns on main roads, which have enjoyed 
little prosperity since the coaching days, have now found 
themselves again in demand. Macadamized roads have 
been improved by laying tar over the surface to stop dust, 
hence the name 'tarmac.' To-day the roads carry about 
one-third of the goods traffic and a higher proportion of 
the passenger traffic of the country. These proportions are 
likely to increase, for it is possible by road to go 'from door 
to door,' and many companies have found it worth while to 
run their own fleets of lorries. In the building of the rail- 
ways Britain was fortunate, for there are few upland areas 
which cannot be avoided by a slight detour or through 
which river valleys or gaps cannot be found. 



COMMUNICATIONS 169 

Question 3. Give examples of lines avoiding hilly 
districts and others showing the use of river valleys. 

Canal transport to-day is small compared with road or 
rail. Rivers in the British Isles are small, canals must be 
small, and the 50- or 100-ton barge on an English canal 
must be contrasted with the 1,000- to 4,000-ton barge on 
the Rhine. Again, although south-eastern England is a 
plain, it is not dead level, and the canals usually have an 
average of about one lock per mile. Their value must not, 
however, be ignored, for they do carry bulky goods, coal 
and china clay for example, and in some areas, in the Mid- 
lands and round Hull, water traffic is considerable (see 
diagram 43). Although it is true that British rivers are not 
of great use for transport, it should hardly be necessary to 
stress the enormous importance of many of their estuaries. 

The first public railway was between Stockton and Dar- 
lington (1825), an d was built to carry coal. Within a few 
years similar short stretches were constructed in other coal- 
fields, in central Scotland, South Wales, and elsewhere. 
Then it was realized that passenger carrying could be a 
profitable business, and lines were built joining all large 
towns. There was much opposition to the new invention. 
Farmers claimed that the smoke would ruin their fields and 
injure their animals, and if, in some towns, it is found that 
the railway station is far from the centre of the town, the 
reason is usually the shortsightedness of the inhabitants who 
refused to allow a railway company to approach any nearer. 
The following extract of a letter sent by the Vice-Chancellor 
of Cambridge University to the Eastern Counties Railway, 
when it proposed to run trains to Cambridge on Sundays, 
shows the general attitude. 'The Vice-Chancellor of the 
University of Cambridge wishes to point out to the directors 
of the Eastern Counties Railway that such a proceeding 
would be as displeasing to Almighty God as it is to the Vice- 
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.' 



170 THE BRITISH ISLES 

It must be realized that there is often a difference between 
railway construction in a new country and in an old. In a 
new country, for example, Canada, it often happens that a 
district is not settled until a railway has been built, that is, a 
railway is pushed into virgin country: it is not until com- 
munications are assured that farmers are prepared to take 
up land. Although there are some exceptions, it is broadly 
true to say that, in an old country, railways have duplicated 
existing routes, that is, they have not opened up new areas 
or created new towns. 

Question 4. (i) Exceptions to this statement are 
'junction' towns. Give two examples. (Chapters 
VIII and XVI.) 

(ii) Southampton is an example of a port where an 
excellent railway service is essential. Explain. 

The great fishing ports, too, would not be as important 
as they are without railways, for a fast service is necessary 
to carry the perishable fish to the markets. Two newer 
fishing ports, Fleetwood and Milford, have been created by 
the railways, for the L.M.S.R. and the G.W.R. laid them- 
selves out to induce fishing boats to use these harbours. 

The railway systems of Great Britain are now four in 
number (diagram 64) : G.W.R. (Great Western Railway), 
L.M.S.R. (London Midland and Scottish Railway), 
L.N.E.R. (London and North-Eastern Railway), and S.R. 
(Southern Railway). 

Great Western Railway. There are really three main lines 
going north-west, west, and south-west from London, 
although they all start from one terminus, Paddington. 

Question 5. Write out a list of the chief towns on the 
three main lines: north-west from Paddington to 
Birkenhead; west from Paddington to Fishguard; 
south-west from Paddington to Penzance. 

London Midland and Scottish Railway. There are two main 
lines : (a) the former London and North-Western Railway, 



COMMUNICATIONS 



17: 



which starts from London (Euston) and goes north-west, 
that is, west of the Pennines to Carlisle and then to Glasgow, 
Inverness, and Wick; (b) the former Midland Railway, 



joo mus. 






— L.M.S.P.. +-► G.W.R.. 

-m S.R*. --- L.N.E..Bv. 
IN IRELAND — L.M.S.K-. 
Gf. SOUTHERN Rjy. 




Hh HOOK, 
FLUSHING 



CHANNE.U O* 
ISLELS <^ 



Diagram 64. The Main Railways 

which starts from London (St. Pancras), and serves the 
Midlands. Note that this route goes through the Aire gap 
on its way to Carlisle. 

Question 6. Write out a list of the towns on these two 
main lines. 

London and North-Eastern Railway. This is not a good name 



172 THE BRITISH ISLES 

for this railway system, and it is easier to consider it as 
(a) the former Great Northern Railway, which starts at 
London (King's Cross), and goes north, that is, east of the 
Pennines to Newcastle, Edinburgh, Perth; (b) the former 
Great Eastern Railway, which starts at London (Liverpool 
Street), and serves Essex and East Anglia; (c) the former 
Great Central Railway, which starts at London (Maryle- 
bone), and serves central England. 

Question 7. Write out a list of the towns on these 
three main lines. 

The Southern Railway, This is a good name for this railway 
system, for it serves south England from Kent to parts of 
Cornwall. The main lines in the south-east are, naturally, 
short, for example, London (Victoria) to Dover or London 
(Victoria) to Brighton. The only long route is that of the 
main line of the old London and South-Western Railway 
from London (Waterloo) to Exeter and Plymouth. 

Examination Questions 

1 . Draw a sketch-map to show the route of a railway from 
London to Crewe. Indicate on it the chief features of the 
relief related to the route, and two large towns on the route. 
(London.) 

2. Draw sketch-maps to show the quickest railway or 
combined railway and steamship route for three of the 
following journeys : (a) London to Dublin, (b) Newcastle 
to Belfast, (c) Carlisle to Glasgow, (d) Newcastle to Edin- 
burgh. (Oxford.) 



CHAPTER XVIII 

population: the counties 

Question i. The population in England and Wales 
was about 5,000,000 during the fourteenth, fifteenth,, 
sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries (of course, it varied ; 
for example, the effect of the Black Death was to reduce 
the population from just over 4,000,000 to just over 
2,000,000). In 1 700 it was 5,500,000, in 1800,9,000,000,, 
while it was 40,000,000 at the last census. What hap- 
pened in the late eighteenth century and during the 
nineteenth to explain the increase? (Chapter III.) 
[Two points must be mentioned. There was emigration 
on a considerable scale from England during this period,, 
so that the increase was in spite of a loss, mainly to 
parts of the British Empire. Emigration from Scot- 
land and Ireland has been discussed but not that from 
England, which occurred at various times and from 
varying causes. Anything which served to put men 
out of work stimulated emigration, for example, the 
introduction of machinery, both on farm and in factory,, 
the drop in the price of wheat after the Napoleonic 
Wars, and the competition of cheap wheat from abroad 
after 1870. Secondly, this enormous increase, which 
has been an increase in town population, could never 
have occurred had there not been improvements in 
medicine and sanitation. For example, Jenner an- 
nounced his discovery of vaccination to the world in 
1798 and, although this is a somewhat controversial 
subject, the fact remains that a pock-marked face is now 
rare, but was a common sight up to the early nineteenth 
century. Before these advances in medical knowledge,, 
towns had been considered as the graves of population 

173 



174 THE BRITISH ISLES 

and, until recently, it was unusual for townsmen to be 
able to trace their ancestry back to other townsfolk. 
The point of the question, however, is one that some 




HOVE. A- l00 PfLOrul. P&RSQ.ML. 
*f6 -loo J>o. 

JuNDftR- 5b" BO. 



Diagram 65. The Density of Population in England 

and Wales prior to the Industrial Revolution 

(about 1700) 

people find easy to grasp, others very difficult, that the 
number of people in a country is dependent on its 
natural resources. It is no accident that the Amazon 
basin or the Arctic is thinly peopled or, to come nearer 
home, that Finland has fewer than 4,000,000 people 
in an area greater than the whole of the British Isles.] 



POPULATION 



175 




OVLR. StZ PE.R.SOMS PtR.SQ.MU. 
(2.6 - 512. Do- 

UNSE.K. 12.6 DO. 



Diagram 66. The Density of Population to-day 

Question 2. Diagram 65 shows the density of popula- 
tion in 1700 and diagram 66 that at the present day. 
(i) What differences are there? (ii) Why have these 
changes occurred. [Note that similar shadings in the 
two maps have different meanings.] 

Diagram 66 is a simplified map: atlases often contain 
maps which are much more detailed. The map, however, 



176 THE BRITISH ISLES 

attempts by its threefold division to emphasize what has 
been mentioned before, viz. the dense population of the 
industrial areas, the scanty population of the uplands, and 
the moderate density of the good farming districts. England 
alone is divided by some people into two by the Jurassic 
escarpments; to the south and east lies, metropolitan Eng- 
land, while to the north and west are the great coal-fields, 
and hence industrial England. 

The Counties. 

The beginning of the division of England into counties 
goes back to the time of the Saxons. In the east and south- 
east it has already been said that the present counties corre- 
spond roughly with the old Saxon kingdoms, for example, 
Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, Sussex, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk. 
These early kingdoms were geographical units cut off from 
their neighbours by some natural barrier, hills, a river, or 
thinly peopled, difficult country. 

Question 3. What were the natural boundaries of 
(a) East Anglia (Chapter XI), (b) Sussex, Surrey, and 
Kent (Chapter XII)? 

Question 4. For which counties does the Thames act as 
a boundary? 

The later counties seem to have been made by choosing 
an important town, and making it the centre of government 
of the surrounding district, and counties so formed nearly 
always take the name of their county town. Thus in the 
Midlands of England the counties are usually part of a river 
basin or sometimes all of it, for the towns chosen were, like 
nearly all British towns, on rivers. These counties are 
often not separated from one another by any well-defined 
natural feature. 

Question 5. What river basins or parts of river basins 



THE COUNTIES 177 

are found in the counties of Shropshire, Hereford, 
Gloucester, Worcester, Warwick, Northampton, 
Leicester? 

In the north of England the county towns are naturally 
on the plains which flank the Pennine Upland and, as in 
south-eastern England, there was at first no boundary 
line between, say, Cumberland and Northumberland. The 
counties were separated from one another by thinly peopled 
upland ; a precise boundary came later. 

Question 6. In the Highlands of Scotland the county 
towns are on the east coast with one exception, In- 
veraray (Argyllshire). 

(i) Why are the county towns on the east coast? 

(ii) What can be noticed about the east and west 
extent of the counties of Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, 
afcd Inverness? 



Examination Questions 

1 . Describe and account for the differences in (a) occupa- 
tions, (b) distribution and density of population in England 
and Wales between the area north and west of a line joining 
the estuaries of the Humber and Severn and that to the 
south and east of it. (Cambridge.) 

2. Explain why (a) two hundred years ago most people 
in England lived in the south and east ; (b) now most people 
live in the north ; and (c) at present the population of the 
south is increasing more rapidly than that of the north. 
(Oxford.) 

3. Describe and explain the distribution of population 
either in Scotland or Ireland. (Bristol.) 

4. Suggest geographical reasons why the population of 
Lancashire is greater than that of the whole of Ireland. In 



178 POPULATION 

what parts and why is the population (a) of Lancashire 
sparse, (b) of Ireland relatively dense. (Cambridge.) 

5. The following figures give density of population per 
square mile. Suggest reasons for the density in each area. 

Highlands of Scotland . . less than 50 

East Anglia . . . . „ 250 

Glamorganshire . . . over 500 

(Oxford.) 

6. Describe and try to account for the distribution of 
population in England north of the latitude of Derby or in 
the Central Lowlands of Scotland. (London.) 

7. What factors influence the distribution of population 
in either Wales or Ireland? (Bristol.) 



CHAPTER XIX 





TRADE 








Imports 






Exports 








per cent 




per cent 


Food, drink, and tobacco: 




Food, drink, and tobacco: 




Meat . 


10 










Dairy produce 


9 










Grain . 


8 










Fruit and vegetables 


4 










Tobacco, animal feed- 












ing stuffs, etc. 


— 










Total 




47 


Total 




8 


Raw materials: 




Raw materials: 






Wool . 


5 




Coal. 


9 




Wood . 


5 










Raw cotton . 


4 










Oil-seeds 


3 










Hides and skins, 












paper-making 










• 


materials, iron and 












other ores, rubber, 












etc. . 


— 










Total 




27 


Total 




T2 


Manufactures: 




Manufactures: 






Petroleum 


5 




Cottons 


11 




Non-ferrous metals 


4 




Machinery 


11 




Machinery, iron and 






Vehicles . 


10 




steel, paper, chemi- 






Iron and stefel 






cals, etc. 






manufactures 
Woollens . 
Chemicals 


9 
6 

5 




Total 




26 


Total 




80 


Grand total 




100 


Grand total 




IOO 



179 



180 THE BRITISH ISLES 

The trade figures are of Great Britain and Northern 
Ireland, for Eire now ranks as a separate unit ; its trade has 
been discussed in Chapter VII, and need not be described 
here. The exports given are those classified by the Board of 
Trade as domestic, for the re-export of produce from other 
countries, the entrepot trade, is excluded. Its value is con- 
siderable, usually some 10-14 per 'cent of the value of 
domestic exports. The presentation of the figures as per- 
centages has many advantages, but also one serious dis- 
advantage, for it does not show that the value of the imports 
is about twice that of the exports. If it were possible, the 
exports of any country should show not only the goods 
which are sent to other countries, but also the services 
rendered to them. British people own about one-third of 
the mercantile marine of the world, and if a British ship 
carries goods for a foreigner this is really an export just as 
much as sending him a bale of cotton goods. Similarly, 
British bankers and insurance brokers do business outside 
this country. These services are often classed as 'invisible 5 
exports, because their value does not appear in ordinary 
trade figures. In the past, too, British people have invested 
money abroad in railways, mines, docks, factories, and plan- 
tations, and the interest on this money is an import with no 
corresponding figure in the exports. 

Question 1. Show the trade figures in diagrammatic 
form : if space permits make the import diagram twice 
the size of the export. 

The percentages given are of value ; if weight were given 
one significant point would be shown, the great importance 
of the export of coal, which is about one-half the total weight 
of the exports. The proportion has been even higher than 
this, but the export of coal has declined in recent years. 
The coal trade has obviously been a major factor in stimu- 
lating shipbuilding, and has also enabled colliers to quote low 
rates for a suitable return cargo, for example, iron ore. 



TRADE 181 

Question 2. (i) Why is iron ore a suitable return cargo? 
(ii) Why has the export of coal declined? (Chapter 
VI.) 

The broad idea of the trade of Great Britain and Northern 
Ireland is simple to grasp. This country is mainly a manu- 
facturing one with 90 per cent of its people living in towns. 
The exports are therefore mainly manufactured goods, and 
it is necessary to import food for the industrial population 
and raw material for the factories. It may seem strange to 
find even a small percentage under food, drink, and tobacco 
in the exports, but this is principally processed food, or pipe 
tobacco and cigarettes, that is, products which could be 
classed as manufactures. The main items in the long list of 
manufactured goods exported are given, but the classifi- 
cation could be given in another way : textiles and iron and 
steel goods make up over 70 per cent of the manufactures. 
The importance'of overseas markets to the textile industries 
may be judged by the fact that about three-quarters of the 
cotton goods and about one-half of the woollen goods made in 
this country are exported. The term vehicles in the list of 
manufactures exported is used by the Board of Trade to 
include ships. 

Both the food and the raw materials imported include 
some, for example, wheat, meat, iron ore, wool, which are 
produced at home, but in insufficient quantities, and others, 
for example, coffee, bananas, cotton, which are not grown 
in this country at all. 

. Question 3. Iron and steel imported, for example, into 
Sheffield, is classified under manufactures. What ob- 
jection is there to this classification? [What will be 
done in Sheffield with it?] 

Although there are other imports classed as manufactures 
which could be otherwise considered, because they form the 
raw material of industry, it is none the less true that Britain, 



1 82 THE BRITISH ISLES 

despite her great export trade of manufactured articles, 
imports many as well. An observer on a street corner of 
a busy town will be passed, in the course of a few minutes, 
by foreign motor cars worth many thousands of pounds. 
British motor cars are good, but some people prefer foreign 
cars. 

Question 4. Many ' one-price ' stores often have foreign 
manufactured goods on sale. Of what type are 
these? 

The nature of Britain's trade has been discussed ; it remains 
therefore to describe the countries with which the trade is 
carried on. It can be shortly expressed in two words, it is 
world wide, for there is hardly a country in the world from 
which Britain does not draw some commodity, or to which 
she does not send either her manufactures or her coal. The 
dependence of British people on their foreign trade may be 
made clearer by thinking of the life of one man for the first 
hour or two of any day. He is awakened by an alarm clock 
which, if a cheap one, is probably of foreign manufacture. 
He rises from his bed, most likely made of foreign timber, 
and throws off the sheets and blankets. The sheets, if 
cotton, are of foreign material and the blankets almost cer- 
tainly contain Australian wool, for four-fifths of the wool 
used in Great Britain is imported. The soap in the bath is 
made of foreign oils, palm and ground-nut oils from West 
Africa, or whale oil from Antarctica. He sits down to 
breakfast and eats bread made largely from foreign flour, 
bacon, which may be home-produced, but is more likely 
from Denmark, butter from New Zealand, Denmark, or 
Australia, marmalade from Spanish oranges, and perhaps 
ends his meal with an apple from Canada, U.S.A., Australia, 
or New Zealand. The milk in his tea or coffee is home- 
produced, but the tea originated in India, Ceylon, or Java, 
or the coffee in East Africa, Arabia, central America, India, 
or Java. And so the story could go on. 



TRADE 



183 



The table below gives the broad facts of this world-wide 
trade : 



Countries from which imports 
come or to which exports are sent 


Imports 
[in percentages'] 


Exports 
[in percentages'] 


British Empire 

Europe 

U.S.A. 

Central and S. America . 

Others 


40 

30 
12 
10 

8 

100 


50 
30 

5 

7 
8 

100 



The figures bring out clearly the fact that, important 
though inter-imperial trade is, more than one-half of the 
total trade of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is carrigd 
on outside the empire. 



The Important Ports. 










Export 


Import 


Total 




Percentages of 
Total Exports 


Percentages of 
Total Imports 


Percentages of 
Total Trade 


London 

Liverpool 

Hull 

Manchester 

Southampton 

Glasgow 


26 
29 

6 

4 
6 
6 


43 

19 

6 

5 
4 
3 


38 
22 

6 

4 
4 
4 



The main ports serving the great industrial areas have 
been shown and discussed, but there has been little com- 
parison between the different ports. The figures show the 
amazing fact that 60 per cent of the total trade of Great 
Britain and Northern Ireland is carried out by two ports, 
G 



1S4 THE BRITISH ISLES 

London and Liverpool, and that nearly 80 per cent is done 
by the first six. (It may be noted here that London also has 
the greatest coastal trade, principally in coal, of any British 
port.) 

Question 5. (i) The values of the exports and imports 
into Liverpool are approximately the same, whereas the 
imports of London are far greater than the exports. 
Suggest reasons for this. 

(ii) Why is Liverpool a more important port than 
Bristol. [Bristol does about 2 per cent of the total trade 
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.] 

(hi) Why are the imports of Harwich much greater 
than the exports? [Remember that Harwich is really 
an outport of London, with trade mainly with Denmark 
and the Netherlands.] 
• 

It may be convenient to add here a brief summary of the 
trade of the main British ports. 

London. 

Imports : food ; raw material for Thames-side and London 

industries, or because it is a great market (e.g. wool, 

hides, and skins, petroleum). 
Exports: manufactured goods (machinery, cars). 
Re-export : wool, furs. 

Liverpool. 

Imports : food ; raw materials (raw cotton, raw wool) . 
Exports : manufactured goods (cottons, woollens, ma- 
chinery, chemicals). 

Hull. 

Imports : food ; raw materials (wool, iron ore, timber) . 
Exports: manufactures (cottons, woollens, machinery). 

Manchester. 

Imports: food; raw materials (raw cotton). 
Exports: manufactures (cottons). 



TRADE 185 

Southampton. 
Imports: food. 
Exports are small in value. 

This is the premier passenger port. 

Glasgow. 

Imports : food ; raw materials. 

Exports: manufactures (iron and steel goods, cottons). 

Examination Question 

Describe (a) the position and (b) the trade of three of the 
following: Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, Glasgow. (C.W.B.) 



CHAPTER XX 

CONCLUSION 

This book has described the Britain of to-day with its 
differences of scenery, climate, natural resources, and the 
varying ways in which the people earn their daily bread. 
But Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as being 
the home of some 45,000,000 people, are also the mother 
country of the largest empire the world has ever seen, with 
about one-quarter of the people and one-quarter of the land 
area of the world. It is not easy in a few sentences to 
explain how this has occurred. It is natural for an island 
people to be fishermen, boat-builders, and sailors and, after 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the routes to 
America and the Far East had been discovered, it was the 
enterprising English merchant in search of markets who 
took English ships to all parts of the globe. It was in order 
to facilitate this trade that many parts of the world came 
under the British flag. The early colonies were usually 
island stepping-stones necessary as refitting stations on long 
sea routes or coastal strips, for example, the St. Lawrence 
lowlands and the coasts of West Africa and India, from which 
goods could be sent to or obtained from the interior. The 
England of the days before the Industrial Revolution ex- 
ported not only woollen goods, ploughshares, knives, and 
boots, but even food, wheat, cheese, butter, and salt. In 
fact, the capital necessary to build the factories and buy the 
machinery during the Industrial Revolution was provided 
mainly by merchants who had amassed their wealth in 
colonial trade. The idea has been summarized in the state- 
ment that Britain's territorial empire is a by-product of her 
'trading empire.' 

Emigration from Great Britain and Ireland during the last 

186 



CONCLUSION 187 

century was largely to parts of the empire, and resulted in a 
double division of it into colonies of settlement, Canada, 
South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and colonies of 
'capital.' By the latter was meant areas in which white 
settlement was impossible, but where British people had 
large interests in trade, mines, or plantations. But the old 
idea of empire where the possessions were considered solely 
from the point of view of their ability to increase the wealth 
of the home country has been superseded ; the colonies of 
settlement have become self-governing dominions and, in 
the others, the interests of the governed are now given far 
more weight. The root cause of the loss to Britain of the 
American colonies was the determination of the colonists 
not to be exploited for the benefit of England. The self- 
governing dominions are, for all practical purposes, inde- 
pendent communities, and could break away entirely if 
they so desired. Thus the British Empire of to-day is 
different from any of its predecessors in the loose, almost 
invisible, links which bind the dominions to Britain, and the 
hope has been expressed that in time all parts of the empire 
will have dominion status. In fact, the term empire, which 
has always meant a great power ruling over a number of 
subordinate states, is gradually being ousted by the word 
commonwealth, which better expresses the free and equal 
partnership which exists between Great Britain and Northern 
Ireland and the self-governing dominions. This chapter 
may fittingly conclude with the words of a former enemy, 
Field Marshal Smuts : ' The old British Empire died at the 
end of the nineteenth century. To-day it is the widest 
system of organized freedom which has ever existed in 
human history.' 

Examination Questions 

1. Show by means of a sketch-map the position and 
extent of one important iron and steel manufacturing area 
in England and Wales. Describe the industry in that area, 



1 88 THE BRITISH ISLES 

and state the chief sources of supply of the raw materials 
used. (Cambridge.) 

2. Give reasons for three of the following: 

(a) Why the climate of Cornwall is less extreme than that 
of East Anglia. 

(b) The location of the woollen textile industry in the 
Tweed basin. 

(c) The absence of large seaports in western Ireland. 

(d) The location of the linen textile industry in Northern 
Ireland. (Cambridge.) 

3. Account for the facts in three of the following: 

(a) There is a smaller proportion of arable land in Ireland 
than in England. 

(b) Crewe is an important railway centre. 

(c) A century ago Britain produced almost enough wheat 
to support her population ; now much wheat is imported. 

(d) Glamorgan is the most densely populated county in 
Wales. (Cambridge.) 

4. Illustrating your answer with sketch-maps, show how 
geographical factors have influenced the growth and im- 
portance of three of the following towns : Belfast, Birming- 
ham, Bristol, Dundee, .Norwich. (Cambridge.) 

5. Select any two of the following areas and describe and 
account for the industries carried on in each : Lanarkshire, 
Tweed valley, Greater London. (Cambridge.) 

6. Describe the position of three centres in the British 
Isles important for shipbuilding. What advantages for 
the industry has each of these centres? (Cambridge.) 

7. Give briefly reasons for three of the following: 

(a) The west coast of England is higher and more rocky 
than the east coast. 

(b) The inlets (rias) of south-western England or of south- 
western Ireland are good harbours, but have no large ports 
on them. 

(c) East Anglia has a more extreme climate than Corn- 
wall. 



CONCLUSION 189 

(d) Northern Ireland is an important centre of the linen 
industry. (Oxford.) 

8. Choose (a) an Irish port, (b) an English agricultural 
market town, and (c) a Welsh manufacturing town, and 
describe, with the help of sketch-maps, the geographical 
factors which have contributed to the growth of each. 
(Oxford.) 

9. Clydebank, Tyneside, and Belfast are three important 
centres of shipbuilding in the British Isles. Show, by sketch- 
maps only, the geographical factors which have helped the 
development of this industry in each of the three centres, 
(N.U.J.B.) 

10. Illustrate two of the following statements by means of 
sketch-maps : 

(a) The more important Irish ports are conveniently 
situated for trade with Great Britain. 

(b) Perth and Stirling grew up as gap towns situated at 
bridge heads. 

(c) The main railway lines leave the London basin by 
gaps in the chalk hills. (N.U.J.B.) 

1 1 . Give briefly the distribution of the main coal-fields in 
England and Wales. Discuss one of them in more detail, 
indicating its position and extent, its principal industries, 
and its chief towns. (Bristol.) 

12. Select three of the following towns, and in each case 
suggest reasons for its growth and importance: Aberdeen, 
Reading, Perth, Manchester, Carlisle. (London.) 



INDEX 



Aberdeen, 20, 63 

Aberdovey, 70, 76 

Aberystwyth, 70, 77 

Adit, 30 

Airdrie, 54 

Aldershot, 157 

Alpine period of mountain 

building, 4, 118 
Aluminium, 62 
Angles, 8 
Anglesey, 70, 75 
Angus, 57 
Anticyclone, 23, 24 
Antrim, 4, 62, 79 
Armorican period of mountain 

building, 3 
Ashby, 114 
Ashford, 135 
Athlone, 85 
Avebury, 6, 7 
Avonmouth, 10, 154 
Axholme, 130 
Ayr, 55, 57 



B 



Bagshot, 157 

Bangor, 77 

Barley, 40, 41-4, 56, 57, 65, 82, 

109, 115, 122 
Barmouth, 60, 76 
Barrow-in-Furness, 93 
Bath, 154 
Beaker Folk, 6 
Bedford, 17 
Belfast, 55, 81, 84 



Belgae, 7 
Birkenhead, 97 
Birmingham, 70, 112, 1 14-16 
Bjerknes theory, 22, 23 
Blackband ironstone, 33, 54, 

101 
Blackburn, 96 
Blackpool, 99 
Bog, 81 

Bognor Regis, 140 
Bolton, 96 
Bore, 1 1 

Boulder clay, 9, 121, 122 
Bournemouth, 140, 141 
Bradford, 104, 105 
Breckland, 126 
Bristol, 116, 117, 153, 154 
Broads, 126 
Bronze Age, 6 
Burnley, 28, 96 
Burntisland, 55, 62 
Burton-on-Trent, 115 
Bury, 96 



Caesar, 7 

Caledonian Canal, 60 
Caledonian period of mountain 

building, 3 
Camborne, 148 
Cambridge, 126' 
Canterbury, 138 
Carboniferous period, 4 
Cardiff, 10, 72, 77 
Cardigan, 17 
Carlisle, 66, 93, 102 
Carse of Gowrie, 57 



191 



192 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



Cattle, 41, 45, 47, 48, 57, 61, 63, 
65, 70, 71, 82, 91, 102, 108, 
109, 115, i2i, 125, 128, 133, 

135, i45> 146, 151. 152, 157 
Celts, 7, 8 

Cement, 34, 135, 163 
Chatham, 135 
Cheddar, 152 
Chemicals, 96, 102 
Chester, 76, 98, 116 
Chicken, 44, 61, 83, 95, 108, 

133 
Cinque ports, 138 ■* 
Cleveland, 101 
Coal, 4, 28-33, 53-5, 71-3, 92, 

93, ?9> II2 > IX 4> !3 6 > l8 ° 
Coalville, 114 
Coatbridge, 54 
Connemara, 81 
Continental shelf, 1, 9, 11 
Copper, 74, 75 
Corby, 112 
Cork, 83, 85 
Cottons, 54, 95, 181 
Coventry, 114, 116 
Crewe, 99, 116 
Crofters, 61, 62, 81 
Cyclone, 22, 23, 25, 26 

D 

Dagenham, 159 
Derby, 20, 105, 106 
Devonport, 149 
Dewsbury, 104 
Dogger Bank, 1 
Doncaster, 105 
Donegal, 81 
Dorchester, 141 
Dover, 136, 138 
Dublin, 85 
Dudley, 112, 114 
Dumbarton, 54 



Dumfries, 66 
Dundee, 55-8 
Dunfermline, 55 
Durham, 20, 101, 102 



Eagre, 11 

Edinburgh, 20, 56, 57, 66 

Ely, 124 

Engineering, 54, 96, 101, 104, 

105 
Entrepot trade, 164 
Exe-Tees line, 5 
Exeter, 17, 148, 149 
Exmouth, 149 



Falmouth, 148 

Fattening pastures, 47, 48, 115, 

128, 151 
Fens, 43, 124-6 
Fiords, 60 
Fireclay, 28 
Fishguard, 76 
Fishing, 9, 11-15,63 
Flax, 55, 56, 84, 109, 123 
Fleetwood, 14, 15 
Folkestone, 138 
Fort William, 20, 62 
Fowey, 148 
Foyers, 62 
Frodingham, 106 
Frome, 152 
Fruit, 57, 125, 133, 134, 141, 

146, 157 



Galashiels, 65 
Galway, 85 

Garden of England, 134 
Garden of Scotland, 56 
Giant's Causeway, 4 



INDEX 



193 



Gillingham, 135 
Glaciation, 9 
Glasgow, 54, 58, 66, 183 
Glenmore, 60 
Gloucester, 76, 117 
Goole, 106 
Grangemouth, 58 
Greenock, 54 
Grimsby, 14, 15, 106 
Guildford, 135, 137 
Gulf stream, 18, 20 

H 

Halifax, 104 

Harris, 63 

Hartlepool, 101 

Harwich, 129, 184 

Hawick, 65 

Hemp, 55 

Hereford, 76 

High Wycombe, 159 

Holyhead, 17, 75 

Hops, 115, 133, 134 

Huddersfield, 104 

Hull, 14, 15, 106, 116, 183 

Huntingdon, 126 

Hydro-electricity, 62, 66, 70, 85 

I 

Ice Age, 5 

Ilfracombe, 149 

Industrial revolution, 32 

Inverness, 62, 63 

Ipswich, 129 

Iron, 32-4, 73, 93, 1 01, 105, 

114, 117, 136 
Ironbridge, 114 
Isle of Axholme, 130 



Jute, 55 
Jutes, 8 



K 



Kaolin (china clay), 35, 98, 148 
Karst, 88 
Keswick, 92 
Kettering, 112, 128 
Kilmarnock, 55, 66 
Kings Lynn, 129 
Kingstown, 75 
Kinlochleven, 62 
Kirkcaldy, 55 



Lanark, 53, 54 

Lancaster, 99 

Larne, 62 

Leeds, 104, 105, 107 

Leicester, 114 

Leith, 58 

Lewes, 135 

Lewis, 17, 63 

Limerick, 85 

Lincoln, 126, 129 

Linlithgow, 56 

Liverpool, 70, 98, 99, 116, 183, 

184 
Llandarcy, 75 
Llandudno, 15 
Llanelly, 74 
London, 32, 116, 158-65, 183, 

184 
Londonderry, 20, 85 
Lowestoft, 14, 15, 129 
Lundy Island, 10 
Luton, 158, 159 



M 



Macadam, 168 
Macclesfield, 97 
Manchester, 96, 97, 99, 106, 183 
Manchester Ship Canal, 96 



194 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



Market gardening, 71, 95, 115, 

122, 141, 152, 157 
Mayo, 81 

Megalithic culture, 6 
Menai Straits, 68 
Mendips, 4 
Merthyr Tydfil, 73 
Methil, 55 
Middlesbrough, 101 
Midlothian, 55, 56 
Milford Haven, 14, 15, 76 
Millstone grit, 88, 95, 104 
Motherwell, 54 
Motor cars, 85, 105, 114, 158, 

159. 163, 165 
Mull, 4 



N 



Newcastle, 29, 101, 102 

Newhaven, 138 

Newlyn, 146 

Nickel, 74, 75 

Normans, 76, 102, 136, 161 

Northallerton, 108 

Northampton, 128 

North Atlantic drift, 18, 20 

Northwich, 96 

Norwich, 128 

Nottingham, 105 

Nuneaton, 114 

O 

Oats, 41,42, 56, 57, 61, 63,65, 
70, 82, 92, 95, 102, 109, 122, 

145 
Oban, 62 
Oil-shale, 56 
Oldham, 96 
Orkney, 13 
Oxford, 158, 159 



Paisley, 54 

Peebles, 65 

Pembroke, 76 

Penzance, 149 

Perth, 57, 63 

Peterborough, 126 

Peterhead, 63 

Pevensey Levels, 1 35 

Pigs, 44, 61, 66, 82, 102, 108. 

125, 146, 
Plankton, 1 1 
Plymouth, 7, 148, 149 
Pontypool, 73, 74 
Portsmouth, 141 
Port Sunlight, 97 
Port Talbot, 74 
Potatoes, 43, 49, 50, 57, 61, 82, 

9^92.955 102, 108, 109, 122, 

125, 145, 146 
Potteries, 97 
Preston, 96, 99 



R 



Reading, 159 

Redruth, 148 

Rhondda, 72 

Ria, 83, 146 

Rochdale, 96 

Rochester, 135 

Romans, 7, 8, 36, 76, 102, 109, 

124, 136, 160 
Romney Marsh, 135 
Rosslare, 76 
Rotation of crops, 42-5 
Rotherham, 105 
Ruabon, 71 
Rugby, 115, 116 
Runcorn, 96 

Rye, 135 



INDEX 



195 



St. Austell, 148 

St. Helens, 97 

Salisbury, 141 

Salt, 96, 101 

Saxons, 7, 8, 136, 176 

Scilly Islands, 10, 146 

Scunthorpe, 106 

Sharpness, 10 

Sheep, 37-9, 41, 57, 61, 62, 65, 

69-71, 81, 83, 91, 92, 102, 

108, 133-5, 145 
'Sheep and corn' farming, 44, 

45, 108, 121, 134 
Sheffield, 17, 104, 105, 107 
Shetland Islands, 13, 14 
Shipbuilding, 54, 84, 93, 97, 

101 
Shrewsbury, 76, 77, 116 
Sitka (Alaska), 20 
Skye, 4 

Slate, 34, 70, 92 
Snowdon, 26, 68 
Soap, 54, 97, 154, 163 
Southampton, 20, 141, 142, 183 
South Shields, 10 1 
Spalding, 125 
Staffa, 4 
Stafford, 116 
Stirling, 17, 57 
Stockport, 96, 97 
Stoke, 97, 98 
Stone Age, 6, 136 
Stonehenge, 6, 7 
Straits of Dover, 6 
Strathmore, 56 
Stroud, 32 

Subsistence farming, 39, 61, 81 
Sugar beet, 42-4, 109, 122, 125 
Sunderland, 10 1 
Swansea, 74, 75, 77 
Swedes, 63, 70, 91, 92 
Swindon, 159 



Tamworth, 114 
Taunton, 149, 152 
Telford, 168 
Tides, 9-1 1 

Tin, 33, 74, 75, 98, 148 
Torquay, 149 
Trossachs, 62 

Turnips, 57, 63, 65, 70, 92, I02 ; 
145 



U 
U-shaped valley, 9 



Valentia, 17 
V-shaped valley, 9 



W 

Wakefield, 107 

Wallsend, 102 

Walsall, U2, 114 

Warrington, 97, 99 

Warwick, 116 

Waterford, 20, 83, 85 

Wednesbury, 1 1 2 

Wellingborough, 112 

Welshpool, 70 

West Bromwich, 112 

Westerlies, 11, 25 

Weston-super-Mare, 154 

Wexford, 85 

Weymouth, 140 

Wheat, 7, 40-4, 56, 57, 82, 102, 

108, 109, 115, 122, 125 
Whitstable, 12 
Wick, 20, 63 
Widnes, 96, 97 



iq6 



THE BRITISH ISLES 



Wigan, 99 
Wilton, 32 
Winchester, 141 
Wisbech, 124, 125 
Wishaw, 54 
Witney, 32 

Wolverhampton, 114, 116 
Woollens, 63, 65, 70, 81, 104. 

114, 181, 186 
Worcester, 17 



Worthing, 140 
Wrexham, 71 



Yarmouth, 14, 15, 126, 129 
York, 109 



Zinc, 74, 75 



Mad€ At THe 




